THEORY, in logic and sci ence, is a term used in various, though connected, meanings. Sometimes it is used as synonymous with hypothesis, that is, to denote any tentative explanation of phenomena. Sometimes it is restricted to explanations that have already passed beyond the stage of mere hypotheses by having received a considerable amount of verification. Sometimes, again, the term theory is simply contrasted with "practice" or "practical application," and will then include any kind of explanation, be it hypothetical or fully established. Lastly, the term is sometimes restricted to the most comprehensive explanation (hypothetical or verified and established) as contrasted with the less compre hensive laws or explanations comprised under them and deducible from them. In this sense we speak of the theory of gravitation, but of Kepler's three laws of planetary motion, and of Boyle's law, but of the dynamic theory of gases. This last usage is perhaps the best. See A. Wolf, Essentials of Scientific Method (1928). THEOSOPHY, a term used to denote those forms of philo sophic and religious thought which claim a special insight into the Divine nature and its constitutive moments or processes (from Gr. 0E6s, god and aocPia, wisdom). Sometimes this insight is claimed as the result of the operation of some higher faculty or some supernatural revelation to the individual ; in other instances the theosophical theory is not based upon any special illumination, but is simply put forward as the deepest speculative wisdom of its author. But in any case it is characteristic of theosophy that it starts with an explication of the Divine essence, and endeavours to deduce the phenomenal universe from the play of forces within the Divine nature itself.
however, would be insufficient to distinguish theosophy from those systems of philosophy which are sometimes called "speculative" and "absolute," and which also in many cases proceed deductively from the idea of God. In a wide sense the system of Hegel or the system of Spinoza may be cited as examples of what is meant. Both thinkers claim to exhibit the universe as the evolution of the Divine nature ; so much is involved, indeed, in the construc tion of an absolute system. But in such systems the known uni verse—the world of experience—is nowhere transcended ; God is really no more than the principle of unity immanent in the whole. Hence, while the accusation of pantheism is frequently brought against these thinkers, the term theosophical is never used in their regard. A theosophical system may also be pantheistic, in tendency if not in intention ; but the transcendent character of its Godhead definitely distinguishes it from the speculative philosophies which might otherwise seem to fall under the same definition. An historical survey shows, indeed, that theosophy generally arises in connection with religious needs, and is the expression of re ligious convictions or aspirations. Accepting the testimony of religion that the present world lies in wickedness and imperfec tion, theosophy faces the problem of speculatively accounting for this state of things from the nature of the Godhead itself. It is thus in some sort a mystical philosophy of the existence of evil; or at least it assumes this form in some of its most typical representatives. The term Mysticism (q.v.) has properly a prac tical rather than a speculative reference; but it is currently applied so as to include the systems of thought on which practical mysticism was based. Thus, to take only one prominent example, the profound speculations of Meister Eckhart (q.v.) are always treated under the head of Mysticism, but they might with equal right appear under the rubric Theosophy. In other words, while an emotional and practical mysticism may exist without attempt ing philosophically to explain itself, speculative mysticism is in current usage almost another name for theosophy.