tableness

English

Etymology

From table +‎ -ness.

Noun

tableness (uncountable)

1. (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, Frances H[elen] Simson, transl., Lectures on the History of Philosophy […], volume II, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., […], →OCLC, 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).'

   • 1969, Gerald Eugene Myers, Self: An Introduction to Philosophical Psychology, page 47:

     […] implies a philosophical distinction between bookness and tableness. There is no more requirement to show why an experience cannot be a brain-state than there is to show why a book cannot be a table.

   • 2009 June 12, Ken Johnson, “Close Encounters With Tableness and Chairness”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     The exceedingly dry joke is that it is not a small table but a small amount of what might be called tableness.