philosophical sin
philosophical sin noun: sin that is said to contravene the natural moral order rather than offending God directly, for example because the sinner is ignorant of divine law or does not think of God in the act.
Noun
philosophical sin (countable and uncountable, plural philosophical sins)
- Sin that is said to contravene the natural moral order rather than offending God directly, for example because the sinner is ignorant of divine law or does not think of God in the act.
- Coordinate term: theological sin
- For, as incompletely wrong acts, such as philosophical sins, or even theological venial sins,—say, of irreligion or disobedience to God,—render one liable to be punished, but not with the eternal loss of the last end; so it may be that there is a sufficient reward for imperfectly good acts, which...1910, Walter McDonald, The Principles of Moral Science, page 145
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see philosophical, sin.
Forms of philosophical sin
| plural | philosophical sins |
|---|
Origin of philosophical sin
Ultimately from Ecclesiastical Latin peccātum philosophicum, coined around 1600.
Questions about philosophical sin
- What does philosophical sin mean?
- Philosophical sin means sin that is said to contravene the natural moral order rather than offending God directly, for example because the sinner is ignorant of divine law or does not think of God in the act.
- What part of speech is philosophical sin?
- Philosophical sin is a noun.
- What is the plural of philosophical sin?
- The plural of philosophical sin is philosophical sins.
Words near philosophical sin in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: philosophical sin (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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