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PREDICABLES (Lat. praedicabilis, that...

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 276 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PREDICABLES (See also:Lat. praedicabilis, that which may be stated or affirmed ) , in scholastic See also:logic, a See also:term applied to a See also:classification of the possible relations in which a predicate may stand to its subject. The See also:list given by the schoolmen and generally adopted by See also:modern logicians is based on the See also:original fivefold classification given by See also:Aristotle (Topics, a iv. for b. 17-25): See also:definition (opos), genus (-y vos), differentia (S&auop&), See also:property ('Z&ov), See also:accident (ovµ(3e31]K6s).1 The scholastic classification, obtained from See also:Boetius's Latin version of See also:Porphyry's Eisagoge, modified Aristotle's by substituting See also:species (ethos) for definition. Both classifications are of universals, concepts or See also:general terms, proper names of -course being excluded. There is, however, a See also:radical difference between the two systems. The standpoint of the Aristotelian classification is the See also:predication of one universal concerning another. The Porphyrian, by introducing species, deals with the predication of universals concerning individuals (for species is necessarily predicated of the individual), and thus created difficulties from which the Aristotelian is See also:free (see below). The Aristotelian classification may be briefly explained: (1) The Definition of anything is the statement of its essence (Arist. ro ri iv eIvaL), i.e. that which makes it what it is: e.g. "a triangle is a three-sided rectilineal figure." (2) Genus is that See also:part of the essence which is also predicable of other things different from them in See also:kind. A triangle is a rectilineal figure; i.e. in fixing the genus of a thing, we subsume it under a higher universal, of which ' Strictly Aristotle's classification is into four as &w opa really belongs to -yevos.it is a species. (3) Differentia is that part of the essence which distinguishes one species from another. As compared with quadrilaterals, hexagons, &c., all of which are rectilineal figures, a triangle is " differentiated " as having three sides.

(4) A Property is an attribute which is See also:

common to all the members of a class, but is not part of its essence (i.e. need not be given in its definition). The fact that the interior angles of all triangles are equal to two right angles is See also:clot part of the definition, but is universally true. (5) An Accident is an attribute which may or may not belong to a subject. The See also:colour of the human See also:hair is an accident, for it belongs in no way to the essence of humanity. This classification, though it is of high value in the clearing up of our conceptions of the essential contrasted with the accidental, the relation of genus, differentia and definition and so forth, is of more significance in connexion with abstract sciences, especially See also:mathematics, than for the See also:physical sciences. It is See also:superior on the whole to the Porphyrian See also:scheme, which has See also:grave defects. As has been said it classifies universals as predicates of individuals and thus involves the difficulties which gave rise to the controversy between See also:realism and See also:nominalism (q.v.). How are we to distinguish species from genus ? See also:Napoleon was a Frenchman, a See also:man, an See also:animal. In the second See also:place how do we distinguish property and accident? Many so-called accidents are predicable necessarily of any particular persons. This difficulty gave rise to the distinction of separable and inseparable accidents, which is one of considerable difficulty.

See the modern logic textbooks.

End of Article: PREDICABLES (Lat. praedicabilis, that which may be stated or affirmed )

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