These words are concerned with concepts of totality and completeness or of necessity. Basic and fundamental suggest first principles that underlie more complex considerations. Fundamental is the more formal of the two and is more natural in a philosophical context when applied to the principles themselves: a fundamental truth. In an educational context, it strongly suggests something that is indispensable or a pre-requisite to more advanced development: reading as a fundamental skill. While fundamental often points to what is ideally necessary, basic may point to what is actually the case.

• Lacking the fundamental ability to make distinctions, their basic vocabulary was greatly reduced.

Basic also has a wider range of application: the basic black of women’s evening dress; a basic distrust of strangers. In these cases, the word may suggest not what in necessary but what is accepted or standard.

Absolute in one sense is used simply as an intensification of basic: an absolute dislike of women. Absolute , however, relates philosophically to ultimate and categorical in another sense. Here, it refers to totality of power. Where fundamental indicates an initial necessity, absolute suggests final and conclusive authority: The child’s fundamental instinct towards co-operation was over-ruled by the absolute value the tribe placed upon competition. Ultimate also suggests the highest or final authority: the ultimate court of appeal. Unlike absolute , it carries an implication of something worked through in time: What our ultimate view of the universe will be no one can say. Unlimited , while suggesting totality, contrasts with ultimate in relating more often to quantity than to time: unlimited profits. It compares to absolute in suggesting less a highest authority than one to which no opposition exists.

• The king’s powers were absolute but hardly unlimited , considering the strictures of canon and common law.

Categorical in its philosophical sense refers to something, usually a principle, which is inescapable, undeniable and universal. Like fundamental , it suggests an ideal necessity; like absolute , it suggests finality and totality.

• The categorical imperative of Kant was a moral truth that the structure of the universe made inevitable.