Meaning of the word "Qua"

[kumar17]

I have been trying to understand what the word "Qua" means. I have refereed few dictionaries but still I am unable to understand it fully.

Qua musician, he lacks skill, but his playing is lively and enthusiastic.(Does it mean "As a musician"?)

The work of art qua art can be judged by aesthetic criteria only.

 

[Rover_KE]

Please tell us the source and author of the quoted sentences.

 

[kumar17]

These are the example sentences given in dictionaries.

 

[emsr2d2]

Which dictionary? That's what we mean by "source".

 

[kumar17]

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/qua

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/qua

 

[emsr2d2]

I'm not sure we'll be able to improve on the definitions in those two links.

 

[constantinusphilo]

'Qua' is the Ablative feminine singular form of the Latin relative pronoun 'quae' meaning 'who' or 'which'. In its Ablative form it means 'as', 'in someone/something essential quality as'. For example: The article deals with Mozart qua composer, not qua husband or father of several children.

 

[kumar17]

I'm not sure we'll be able to improve on the definitions in those two links.

I tried to understand the meaning of the word from the definitions but what I can't understand is what exactly they mean when use it like "insects qua insects", ''individual qua individual''etc(Examples are taken from here). I thought they used it in order to emphasis the word. I understand if the sentence is like ''President qua president passed the order''. It means president ordered in the capacity of him being president. But, I can't understand when it is used like this "The controversy qua controversy is entirely artificial and without foundation." The controversy in the capacity of controversy is entirely artificial and without foundation(?). Besides that The Cambridge dictionary gives the definition as "as a particular example of something, or the general idea of something:" and other dictionaries like "in the capacity or character of". I think both the definitions are slightly different. Hence, I asked this doubt.

 

[5jj]

"The controversy qua controversy is entirely artificial and without foundation." .

Think of the meaning s something along the lines of:

What has been referred to as a controversy is nothing like what we normally mean by the word "controversy". It is not a controversy in the standard meaning of the word. It is an artificial controversy. There is no basis to the claim that it is a controversy.

The original sentence expressed this rather more succinctly.

 

[kumar17]

Think of the meaning s something along the lines of:

What has been referred to as a controversy is nothing like what we normally mean by the word "controversy". It is not a controversy in the standard meaning of the word. It is an artificial controversy. There is no basis to the claim that it is a controversy.

The original sentence expressed this rather more succinctly.

The professor qua professor is unfit to teach. I formed this sentence. I meant "The professor is not knowledgeable enough to teach and therefore, unfit to be a professor " Is my sentence correct?

The university qua university is of substandard. I meant "The university does not have the standard one expects from the university" Is this correct?

 

[probus]

Your two sentences are correct but needlessly wordy. In both cases the original satements (without qua x) express the same meaning more succinctly.

 

[Phaedrus]

The work of art qua art can be judged by aesthetic criteria only.

I tried to understand the meaning of the word from the definitions but what I can't understand is what exactly they mean when use it like "insects qua insects", ''individual qua individual''etc(Examples are taken from here). I thought they used it in order to emphasis the word.

I am most familiar with the preposition qua in examples like the ones above, in which either the same noun phrase precedes and follows qua (e.g., the sonnet qua sonnet, the philosopher qua philosopher) or the word which precedes qua is a subspecies of the word following qua (e.g., the ideology qua belief system). Interestingly, the noun phrase following qua is usually not preceded by an article. I would paraphrase qua in such examples as meaning "in its/their quality of being a." People use qua in this way when they want to highlight the fact that they are speaking of a thing with respect to its essential characteristics as that type of thing. Consider these examples:

"But this sonnet, qua sonnet, exists essentially by virtue of the syllogism which informs it" (source).
"There's nothing wrong with the sonnet qua sonnet, though" (source).
"Qua sonnet, the composition violates certain of the most elementary rules of sonnet construction" (source).