MODE

In metaphysics, a limitation or determination produced in some actual reality by a principle or cause extrinsic to itself, e.g., rapidity or slowness of motion, various shades of the same color, and different degrees of a virtue or vice; in logic, a particular determination of the proposition or syllogism

Real Modes. Mode is found in all creaturely reality, only God being absolutely unmodified. "Wherever there is something received there must be a mode, since what is received is limited according to the recipient; therefore, since creaturely being, essential and accidental, is received [being], mode is found not only in accidental things but also in substances" (St. Thomas Aquinas, De ver. 21.6 ad 5). All experienced reality involves partial or limited perfection. For example, man has the perfection of intelligence, but limited intelligence, called reason; intelligence of itself does not bespeak animality, and this limits human intelligence.

Mode is proximately produced in a perfection by two principles, viz, the efficient and material causes (Summa theologiae 1a, 5.5). The efficient cause effects a form of determinate species and so determines it; the material cause, by its relative aptness, receives this form more or less perfectly and so determines its individual perfection.

Mode resides in both the perfection modified and in the principle that modifies it; yet it is more properly in the latter, since the form is modified primarily by the modifying principle. For example, individuality is a mode of being found in all corporeal things, and arising from their corporeity, since matter exigent of quantity is the root of individuation; yet individuality, more properly in matter, affects the form also, individualizing it through its relation to matter.

Scholastics distinguish between intrinsic and extrinsic modes. Intrinsic modes constitute or complete something because they are requisite to the being, either essential or existential, of the nature. For example, man is neither body nor soul but the union of the two; this union is neither body nor soul but a mode of being shared by each, since each in a manner proper to it determines and modifies the other, and thereby contributes to constituting man's nature. Extrinsic modes, on the other hand, suppose a nature complete in its interior being, essential and existential, but determine it in nonessentials, relative to other things or natures. For example, location (ubi ) is produced in a body only through the mediacy of other bodies, so that were there only one body existing, it would have no location. Yet extrinsic modes are not mere references to other things—such references constituting the category of relation—but qualifications of a reality that truly characterize it, although relatively to other existing things. (see categories of being.)

Modality figures prominently in scholastic theology and philosophy. In theology, for example, mode alone explains different graces and different degrees of beatific vision in heaven. All supernatural grace has the same nature and definition; but the difference among sacramental graces, the difference between Christian grace and pre-Christian, and the different degrees of grace in different persons, or in the same person at different times, are all modal differences (see distinction, kinds of).

Logical Modes. These either assert the manner in which a predicate term is affirmed or denied of a subject term, e.g., "It is impossible that right be wrong," or identify particular determinations of syllogistic form. Four logical modes are usually distinguished: impossible, possible, necessary, and contingent. Each of the four can be either divided or composed (divisa aut composita ). The divided mode is had when the modal word or phrase functions as an adverb qualifying the verb, e.g., "Man is necessarily rational." In the composed mode the modal phrase functions as predicate term, e.g., "That the court erred is possible." The various allowed forms of the figures of the categorical syllogism, such as Barbara and Celarent, are referred to as modes or moods. The modal syllogism, on the other hand, expresses an argumentation wherein the premises and conclusion are modal propositions.

Bibliography: p. foulquiÉ and r. saint-jean, Dictionnaire de la langue philosophique (Paris 1962) 445–447. r. eisler, Wörterbuch der philosophischen Begriffe, 3 v. (4th ed. Berlin 1927–30) 2:157–160. s. caramella, Enciclopedia filosofica 4 v. (Venice-Rome 1957) 3:651–654. john of st. thomas, Cursus philosophicus thomisticus, ed. b. reiser, 3 v. (new ed. Turin 1930–37) 1:500–504. r. r. masterson, "Sacramental Graces: Modes of Sanctifying Grace" Thomist 18 (1955) 311–372. i. m. bocheÉski, A History of Formal Logic, ed. and tr. i. thomas (Notre Dame, Ind. 1961).

[t. u. mullaney]

mode / mōd/ • n. 1. a way or manner in which something occurs or is experienced, expressed, or done: his preferred mode of travel was a kayak differences between language modes, namely speech and writing. ∎  an option allowing a change in the method of operation of a device, esp. a camera: a camcorder in automatic mode. ∎  Comput. a way of operating or using a system: some computers provide several so-called processor modes. ∎  Physics any of the distinct kinds or patterns of vibration of an oscillating system. ∎  Logic the character of a modal proposition (whether necessary, contingent, possible, or impossible). ∎  Logic & Gram. another term for mood² .2. a fashion or style in clothes, art, literature, etc.: in the Seventies, the mode for activewear took hold.3. Statistics the value that occurs most frequently in a given set of data.4. Mus. a set of musical notes forming a scale and from which melodies and harmonies are constructed.5. (in full mode beige) a drab or light gray color.

Mode

In statistics and mathematics, the mode of a set of numbers is the number that occurs most frequently within that set. There may be no modes within a set of numbers, only one mode, or more than one mode. In the set {1, 4, 5, 7}, there are no modes because each number occurs with the same frequency. However, in the set {1, 4, 4, 5, 6}, the number 4 is the only mode. The modes of the set {1, 1, 1, 3, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6} are 1, 5, and 6 because each number occurs three times within the set.

The mode provides one way to summarize a set of numbers without looking at all of the numbers in the set. For instance, if a group of students take a test and the modes for the test are 96%, 97%, and 100%, the teacher probably knows that the test was very easy because these three test scores occurred the most frequently in the class. This conclusion may or may not be true, but it provides the teacher with an quick and

easy assessment of how difficult or easy the test was for the students.

The mode is one of the measures of central tendency, the others being the mean and the median. Although mode is sometimes similar to mean and median, it can be very different from them depending on the set of numbers used. The mean is the average of a set of numbers. For the set of numbers {1, 4, 4, 5, 6}, the mean is calculated by 1 + 4 + 4 + 5 + 6)/4 = 20/4 = 5. The median is the value of the middle member of a set of numbers when those members are arranged in order. For the example used earlier, {1, 4, 4, 5, 6}, the median is 4 because there are two numbers to its left and two other numbers to its right. Thus, it is the middle number of a set of numbers that are arranged in order. In this particular case, the mode is the number 4, the mean is 5, and the median is 4. Mode is the same as median, but different from mean.

Mode

One of the measures of central tendency in statistics.

In statistics, the mode is a descriptive number that indicates the most frequently occurring score or scores in a group of numbers. Along with the mean and the median , the mode constitutes the grouping of descriptive statistics known as measures of central tendency. Although the mode is the easiest of the measures of central tendency to determine, it is the least used because it gives only a crude estimate of typical scores.

See also Median; Mean

Further Reading

Peavy, J. Virgil. Descriptive Statistics: Measures of Central Tendency and Dispersion. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services/Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, 1981.

EXAMPLE

124-125-128-129-129-130-130-130-130-131-133-133-133

The mode is 130.

mode Classified scheme developed during the 4th to 16th centuries ad to systematize music. In the 4th century, from the scale worked out scientifically by Pythagoras, St Ambrose is thought to have devised four ‘authentic’ modes: the Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and Mixolydian. All the modes comprised eight notes within the compass of an octave. Pope Gregory (6th century) added four ‘plagal’ modes, which were essentially new forms of the Ambrosian modes (Hypodorian, Hypophrygian etc.). Glareanus (16th century) added the Aeolian and Ionian modes, the basis of the minor and major scales respectively.