Language

Space · Ether · Sanskrit philosophy

A Sanskrit word usually translated as 'space' or 'ether' — the subtlest of the classical elements, the medium in which everything else exists.

Duty · Order · Way of life

A Sanskrit term with no single English equivalent — somewhere between law, duty, order, righteousness and the nature of a thing.

Element · Medium · Discarded science

A word that has meant the upper air, the fifth element, and a medium for light — and was eventually abandoned by physics without quite leaving the language.

Extension · Void · Field

Whether space is a container things sit in or a relation between things is one of the oldest live arguments in thought.

Language · Transmission · Precision

A classical Indo-European language whose grammatical precision shaped how a vast body of philosophy could be argued.

Love of wisdom · Method · Inquiry

Literally the love of wisdom: the practice of asking questions carefully enough that the answers can be examined.

Word · Reason · Order

A Greek word meaning word, account, ratio and reason at once — and one of the most consequential ambiguities in Western thought.

Personhood · Community · Southern Africa

A Nguni Bantu term for a view of personhood in which a person becomes a person through other people.

Action · Consequence · Intention

A Sanskrit word meaning 'action' that became a theory of consequence — and, in English, a rough synonym for cosmic payback it never was.