Definition of "per se"
per se
adverb
not comparable
Without determination by or involvement of extraneous factors; by its very nature.
Quotations
A proposition is per se known as regards itself , but not per se known as regards us, when it has no medium of proof a priori, nor is its truth directly and immediately evident to us on first apprehending the terms.
1877, Walter Henry Hill, Elements of Philosophy: Comprising Logic and Ontology Or General Metaphysics, page 220
What words actionable. to subject the offender to contempt, and deprive him of public confidence, and to accuse one who is a notary public of procuring a false affidavit to be made before him is libelous and actionable per se.
1909, Emlin McClain, A Digest of Decisions of the Supreme Court of Iowa: From the Organization of the Territory Until the End of January, 1908 ..., page 3672
(colloquial, sometimes proscribed, chiefly in the negative) In a true or literal sense; as one would expect from the name or description.
Quotations
As we shall see, since the 1960s, the ELN, although not a religious movement per se, represents an interesting amalgam of beliefs that helped serve in recruitment, commitment, and identification of a revolutionary belief and ritual.
2013 February 12, Kjell-Ake Nordquist, Gods and Arms: On Religion and Armed Conflict, Wipf and Stock Publishers, page 70
He sells a story, flirts with a waitress, looks handsome, has writer's block, and feels sorry for himself, but it's not a story about the Depression per se: it could be set in any time period, almost anywhere.
2017 May 22, Stephen Pimpare, Ghettos, Tramps, and Welfare Queens: Down and Out on the Silver Screen, Oxford University Press
(philosophy) As the principle of its own determination and positing itself.
Quotations
Thus, unless there exists some being that exists per se, the origination of esse in a chain of composites itself remains unexplained and quite mysterious. And the existence of a being that exists per se is affirmed through a denial of an infinite regress of essence-esse composites causing other such composites.
2015, Gaven Kerr, Aquinas's Way to God: The Proof in De Ente et Essentia
Aquinas rejects this position, because then God would not be per se necessary, but would be necessitated by his own divine nature to create. Hence to be per se necessary, God must be free to create.
2022 October 15, Gaven Kerr, Collected Articles on the Existence of God, BoD – Books on Demand, page 218
(law) Not leaving discretion to the judge to take into account additional factors that could rebut the judgment, deriving the qualification from the statute.
Quotations
In an effort to assist states that may have recently adopted or expect to adopt administrative per se, NHTSA has collected sample copies of forms and a brief description of the administrative procedures from selected states with in-place programs.
1986, Administrative Per Se: A Summary of State Forms and Procedures
adjective
not comparable
(philosophy) Positing itself and being a principle of its own determination.
Quotations
Hence, God would have to be the immediate per se cause of some natural motions, but not of all. But no known natural motion is without a natural motion as its immediate per se cause.
1980, Mortimer Adler, How to Prove There Is a God: Mortimer J. Adler's Writings and Thoughts About God, Open Court, page 197
Before stating at 74b5ff. that the connection between the subject and predicate of the premisses of scientific inferences must not be accidental but per se, he introduces the technical terms 'about all' ( 'kata pantos' ) and 'per se' (' kath' hauto ') in order to clarify the meaning of this proviso.
1988, J. van Rijen, Aspects of Aristotle’s Logic of Modalities, page 137
The per se cause of the house is the building skill and the craftsman who exercises it, while the per accidens cause is the fair-skinned or the artistic man. Alexander says: 'Aristotle says that just as anything that exists is one thing per se and another per accidens (by “being what it is per se” he means the substance, and by "what is per accidens" he means the attributes of the substance), so a cause is one thing per se and another per accidens.
2014, Barrie Fleet, Simplicius: On Aristotle Physics 2, page 97
They hold to the impossibility of an actual per se infinity, because in a per se series the effects have a dependence on their causes, in which case if the series were infinite, the ultimate effect would be dependent on an infinite chain of causes; and since an infinity cannot be traversed, the being of such an effect would never be explained.
2015, Gaven Kerr, Aquinas's Way to God: The Proof in De Ente et Essentia
(law) That does not leave discretion to the judge to take into account additional factors that could rebut the judgment, deriving the qualification from the statute.
Quotations
Until recently Denmark hesitated to adopt a formal per se law, preferring to give more discretion to its judges, but the general practice was to take blood tests and to convict those accused under the classical law if the blood alcohol concentration was greater than 100 mg./100 ml.
1981, Hugh Laurence Ross, Deterrence of the Drinking Driver: An International Survey, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Transportation, page 80