Note 183 — ESSAY ON FAITH
Reading edition
There are four kinds of Theses, Θεσεις, puttings or placings.
1. Prothesis.
2. Thesis. 3. Antithesis.
4. Synthesis.
A and B are said to be thesis and antithesis, when if A be the thesis, B is the antithesis to A, and if B be made the thesis, then A becomes the antithesis. Thus making me the thesis, you are thou to me, but making you the thesis, I become thou to you. Synthesis is a putting together of the two, so that a third something is generated. Thus the synthesis of hydrogen and oxygen is water, a third something, neither hydrogen nor oxygen. But the blade of a knife and its handle when put together do not form a synthesis, but still remain a blade and a handle. And as a synthesis is a unity that results from the union of two things, so a prothesis is a primary unity that gives itself forth into two things.