secondary qualities

plural noun

1. (in empiricist philosophy) those properties of objects that are explained in terms of the primary properties of their parts, such as heat in terms of the motion of molecules

Example Sentences

Secondary qualities are thus intermediate cases, with some basis in the real world: “Colour and also temperature, hot and cold flavor, certain kinds of characterizations of sound, high-pitched and low-pitched in sound, there are a number of these,” Matthen said.

From Salon

The terminology we now use to express this distinction, between primary and secondary qualities, was introduced by Boyle in 1666 and popularized by Locke in 1689.

From Literature

Although Descartes followed the ancient atomists in their distinction between primary and secondary qualities, he rejected their belief in empty space, the void.

From Literature

Primary qualities are objective; secondary qualities are subjective, in that they depend on our ways of sensing.

From Literature

If the world was to be reducible to physical causation, then all mental experiences—intention, agency, purpose, meaning—must be secondary qualities, inexplicable within the framework of materialism.

From The New Yorker