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—synthesist, n./sin"theuh sis/, n., pl. syntheses /-seez'/.1. the combining of the constituent elements of separate material or abstract entities into a single or unified entity (opposed to analysis).2. a complex whole formed by combining.3. Chem. the forming or building of a more complex substance or compound from elements or simpler compounds.4. Philos. See under Hegelian dialectic.5. Biol. See modern synthesis.6. Psychol., Psychiatry. the integration of traits, attitudes, and impulses to create a total personality.[1580-90; < L < Gk sýnthesis, equiv. to syn- SYN- + the- (s. of tithénai to put, place) + -sis -SIS]
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in philosophy, the combination of parts, or elements, in order to form a more complete view or system. The coherent whole that results is considered to show the truth more completely than would a mere collection of parts. The term synthesis also refers, in the dialectical philosophy of the 19th-century German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel, to the higher stage of truth that combines the truth of a thesis and an antithesis. Jean-Paul Sartre's (Sartre, Jean-Paul) philosophy underscores an existential type of synthesis. In Being and Nothingness, consciousness (pour-soi) is always trying to become being (en-soi), to achieve a synthesis, as it were, between no-thing and some-thing.* * *
Universalium. 2010.