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Literary notes about Predominance (AI summary)

The term “predominance” is used in literature to denote the state wherein one quality, element, or force asserts a prevailing influence over others. Philosophers like Schopenhauer and Nietzsche explore this notion in abstract domains; for example, Schopenhauer contrasts the predominance of knowing versus willing [1], while Nietzsche speaks of moral values and even physiological factors taking precedence in life [2, 3]. In works examining human nature and society, the word appears to symbolize not just abstract hierarchies but also concrete personality traits—such as the dominance of greed [4] or the reflective capacity of an individual [5]—and even broader cultural currents [6]. Beyond metaphysical and sociological contexts, “predominance” is employed in diverse fields; it shapes the interpretation of natural phenomena [7], musical arrangements [8], and symbolic expressions [9]. This varied usage underscores how the concept captures a fundamental ordering principle across different realms of thought.
  1. Inward disposition, the predominance of knowing over willing, can produce this state under any circumstances.
    — from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer
  2. The predominance of moral values.
    — from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book I and II by Nietzsche
  3. (5) The predominance of physiology over theology, morality, economics, and politics.
    — from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book I and II by Nietzsche
  4. Their original disposition is by this time smothered by the predominance of greed.
    — from The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: The Inferno by Dante Alighieri
  5. "That has generally been observed in men of great administrative capacity, I believe,–a tendency to predominance of the reflective powers in me!
    — from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
  6. Our culture is the predominance of an idea which draws after it all this train of cities and institutions.
    — from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson
  7. The predominance of bivalve mollusca of this peculiar class has caused the Silurian period to be sometimes styled ”the age of brachiopods.”
    — from Paradise Lost by John Milton
  8. The movement of solo voices is seldom purely harmonic in character with predominance given to the upper voices homophonically treated.
    — from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson
  9. We must constantly bear in mind this fact, of the primary existence and predominance of symbolism in the earliest times.
    — from The symbolism of Freemasonry : by Albert Gallatin Mackey

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