Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/385

* CATECHU. 329 CATEGORY. rice or on leaves, and appear in commerce envel- oped in them. The catechu manufacturers in iiortlieru India move to different parts of the country at different seasons, and erect tem- porary huts in tlie jungles, where they carry on their operations. I'lyii catechu is the ordi- nary commercial variety and is used in medi- cine; it is soluble in hot water, in alcohol, acetic acid, and the stronjj alkalies; it is astringent and leaves a sweetisli taste in the mouth. The active ingredients of calecliu are catechuie acid or catechin, and a peculiar variety of tannic acid, of which it contains about 54 per cent. Catechu has been extensively employed in the dyeing of browns, fawns, drabs, and olives. It is much used for coloring stout canvas. See Gambib. CATECHUMENS, kat'i-ku'menz (Fr. caid- chumcne, Lat. catechu menus, Gk. Kan/xot/icvoc, katcchoumenos, from Kari/xe'iv, katcchein, to in- struct orally). The appellation commonly given, in the early ages of the Christian Churcli, to those converted Jews and heatliens who had not yet received baptism, but were undergoing a course of training and instruction jireparatory to it. Tlicy had a place assigned them in the congrega- tion, but were not permitted to be present at the dispensation of the Lord's Supper. In the apostolic age converts appear to liave been at once admitted to the sacraments; but afterwards this ceased to be the case, and a period of proba- tion was required. The catechumens were di- vided into different classes or grades, according to their proficiency. Those of the lower grade were not permitted to be present during the prayers of the congregation ; and those only of the higher, and who had been declared fit to be baptized at the next administration of the ordi- nance, were permitted to witness the dispensa- tion of the Lord's Supper. The term catechu- mens was afterwards employed to designate young members of the Christian Church who were receiving instruction to prepare them for confirmation or for the Lord's Supper, and is still often used in this sense. As the Teaching of the TiccJve Apostles shows, from the earliest period of the Christian Church didactic instruc- tion was given to the candidates for baptism. But an air of mystery was thrown around the sacraments, especially the eucharist, and the de- sire of the candidates excited by hints that there was something to be revealed. In the body of the baptized the sacraments were freely spoken of and the teaching relative to them was known as the 'Discipline of the Secret' (Arcani Disci- jdina). How much it amounted to is not now detcnninable, but probably it presented a full exposition of sacramental doctrine, and up to it the in'^tructions of the catechumens led. CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE. A term much used by Kant (q.v. ) and his followers to designate what they consider to be the absolutely unconditional character of the demands that morality makes upon every reasonable being. If we wish to preserve health we must observe the laws of hygiene, but we may not wish to pre- serve health. The obligation of hygienic rules is thus conditional upon a certain wish which may or may not be cherished. But whether we wisli it or not, we ought to respect another man's proi)erty. This obligation is thus conceived to be absolute. For a criticism of this view, see Ktiiics. CATEGORY (Fr. categoric, Lat. categoria, frnm Lik. Kavz/yopia, kategoria, category, charge, from Kanrjopei-eiv, katcyoreuein, to accuse, from Kara, kala, down -- oyopeictv, agorcuein, to de- claim, from ayopd, agora, assembly, from nycw, agein, to lead). A philosophical term in use since the time of Aristotle. Aristotle used it to denote tlie highest classes under which all predi- cates of propositions concerning things can be sub- sumed. He recognized ten such categories, viz. substance, quantity, quality, relation, place, time, situation, possession, action, and passivity. The Hindu philosopher Kavada is said to have treated categories in such a way as to have attained a result very much like Aristotle's. (See Thompson's Lairs of Thought, appendix by Max Miiller.) The Stoics recognized four on- tological categories — substance, attribute, states, and relations. Plotinus recognized five — being, rest, motion, identity, and difference. The Scholastics accepted Aristotle's classification without any other change than to Latinize the word category into predicamcntum, whence comes our word predicament in the sense of 'plight.' To be in a bad predicament is to be so circumstanced that the predicate of a judgment that adequately expresses one's situation falls under a bad class of predicates. Kant (q.v.) objected to Aristotle's classification as being un- critical, and proposed a new classification rest- ing on the traditional classification of judgments. But Kant did more than give a new classification of categories. He introduced a new conception of their nature. They were for him a priori (q.v.) principles of sTithesis, whereby thought brings into definite intelligible form the chaotic manifold elements of sense. Kant recognized four categories, those of quantity, quality, rela- tion, and modality. Each of tliese was subdi- vided into three classes, with twelve resulting categories, viz. unity, plurality, totality; reality, negation, limitation; inherence and subsistence, causality and dependence, community; possibil- ity and impossibility, existence and non-exist- ence, necessity and contingency. (See Kant.) Hegel criticised Kant for doing what Kant criti- cised Aristotle for doing, and insisted that dia- lectic is the only method whereby the categories can be satisfactorily determined. (See Dialec- tic.) He also modified the Kantian view of categories by making them not so much forms imposed by thought on sense-contents, themselves devoid of such fonns, as principles obtaining in the imitary world of thought and things. They have thus both an objective and a subjec- tive significance. Hegel in this way embodied in his treatment of categories both the Aris- totelian realism and the Kantian idealism. As a result of his dialectic method, Hegel obtained three groups of categories — being, essence, and con- crete thought {Begriff). Each of these has many subdivisions, so that the list he gives includes something like one hundred and fifty; but he does not claim absolute accuracy or exhaustive- ness for the detailed results he obtains. J. S. Mill proposed as substitute for Aristotle's clas- sification: (1) feelings, or states of conscious- ness; (2) the minds which experience those feelings; (3) bodies or external objects which excite certain of those feelings; (4) the succes- sions and co-existences, the likenesses and un- likenesses, between feelings or states of con- sciousness. For Mill, categories were classes ot