tableness
English
Etymology
From table + -ness.
Noun
tableness (uncountable)
- (philosophy) The quality of being a table.
- Synonym: tableity
- 1894, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, “First Period, Third Division: Plato and Aristotle”, in E[lizabeth] S[anderson] Haldane and Frances H[elen] Simson, transl., Lectures on the History of Philosophy […], volume II, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., […], OCLC 612813, page 29:
- When Plato spoke of tableness and cupness, Diogenes the Cynic said: 'I see a table and a cup, to be sure, but not tableness and cupness.' 'Right,' answered Plato; 'for you have eyes wherewith to see the table and the cup, but mind, by which one sees tableness and cupness, you have not (νου̑ν οὐκ ἔχεις).'
- 2009 June 12, Ken Johnson, “Close Encounters With Tableness and Chairness”, in The New York Times:
- The exceedingly dry joke is that it is not a small table but a small amount of what might be called tableness.