The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1047 page)

;
ALOK
;
SAVAYYE
;
V
R
.

 
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Hypatia
(Neo-Platonic philosopher)
:

see
CYRIL, ST
.

 
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(Gk.; pl. -ses). A technical term used in Christian formulations of the doctrine of the
Trinity
and of
christology
. In secular Gk. its most general meaning is ‘substance’, but it could also mean ‘objective reality’ as opposed to illusion (as in Aristotle), and ‘basis’ or ‘confidence’ (as in Hebrews 3. 14). In Christian writers until the 4th cent. it was also used interchangeably with
ousia
, ‘being’ or ‘substantial reality’. The term also came to mean ‘individual reality’ hence ‘person’. It was in this sense that it was enshrined, under the influence of the
Cappadocian fathers
, in the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity as ‘three hypostases in one ousia’.
From this technical use, the term is applied to the substantiation of a metaphysical reality—e.g. the (possible) hypostasization of
Wisdom
in Jewish Wisdom literature.

 
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I
.

A Chinese term often translated as ‘righteousness’. It connotes that which is just, proper, in accord with moral and customary principles.
As a moral and philosophical concept, i is rooted in early
Confucian
thought. For
Confucius
himself, i seems to have been related to a more comprehensive value,
jen
(‘humanheartedness’).
Mencius
placed greater stress on i, making it one of the four virtues each of which has a ‘font’ (
tuan
) in the heart or mind.
In early
Taoist
thought, particularly in the
Chuang Tzu
, i is the condition in which all things, merely by following their nature, do the ‘right’ thing.
For early ‘legalist’ thinkers such as Han Fei Tzu, by contrast, i was seen as already a relic from the past. Jen and i no longer suffice to order society, despite the fact that they were taught and practised by the sage kings and teachers of old; only coercion by force is effective.
These early schools of thought set the parameters for most subsequent moral and philosophical thought on i.

 
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