The Collaborative International Dictionary
Constitutive \Con"sti*tu`tive\, a.
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Tending or assisting to constitute or compose; elemental; essential.
An ingredient and constitutive part of every virtue.
--Barrow. Having power to enact, establish, or create; instituting; determining.
--Sir W. Hamilton.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
c.1600, "having the power of establishing," also "elemental, essential," from Medieval Latin *constitutivus, from constitut-, past participle stem of constituere (see constitute). Related: Constitutively.
Wiktionary
a. 1 having the power or authority to constitute, establish or enact something 2 having the power or authority to appoint someone to office 3 extremely important, essential 4 that forms a constituent part of something else 5 (context biochemistry English) (''of an enzyme'') that is continuously produced at a constant rate
WordNet
adj. constitutional in the structure of something (especially your physical makeup) [syn: constituent(a), constitutional, constitutive(a), organic]
Wikipedia
The term "constitutive" might refer to:
- In physics, a constitutive equation is a relation between two physical quantities.
- In cell biology, a constitutively active protein is a protein which is constantly active.
- In ecology, a constitutive defense is one that is always active, as opposed to an inducible defense.
- Constitutive theory of statehood
- In genetics, constitutive refers to a "Constitutive gene" or Gene expression
- In biochemistry, constitutively associated proteins are normally associated, always associated, in contrast to dynamically associated proteins, where the association depends on certain conditions such as some regulation.
Usage examples of "constitutive".
Whereas the Hobbesian hypothesis emphasizes the contractual process that gives rise to a new unitary and transcendental supranational power, the Lockean hypothesis focuses on the counterpowers that animate the constitutive process and support the supranational power.
It reads the affirmation of life and freedom as involving a repudiation of qualitative distinctions, a rejection of constitutive goods as such, while these are themselves reflections of qualitative distinctions and presuppose some conception of qualitative goods.
Just as the will to power is "a structure in which differences of potential are distributed, a constitutive dissymmetry, difference, or inequality" (Deleuze), so information is composed of reversible gradients of electronic potential and ever-changing dissymmetries of charge.
Since each culture and each belief system is different, and these different sets are partly constitutive of the mystical experience, then there is and can be no common mystical experience, and this also, it is said, undercuts the mystical claim to valid or universal knowledge.