DEFINITIONS, DIVIDIONS, AND JUDGEMENT

“de”

prefix that means off

“fin or finis”

means end or boundary

NOMINAL/ETYMOLOGICAL DEFINITION

○ Explains what a word is by checking back its etymologicalmeaning.

○ From the radical beginning or root meaning of the word/s.

REAL DEFINITION

Explains what really a thing is based on its essential and/or non-essential elements.

ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS

● Statements which explain the real essence or nature of a thing.

● It gives the proximate “genus” that is, part of a thing which has in common with the other and “specific difference” that is, part of a thing distinguished by other species under similar genus.

NON-ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS

○ descriptive definitions that explain a thing by enumerating the positive but non essential elements of its nature.

DISTINCTIVE NON-ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS

○ Explain a thing by stating its property.

GENETIC NON-ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS

Explain a thing by its process of origin or production.

CAUSAL NON-ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS

Explain a thing by means of its efficient cause (is that by which something is made) and final cause (on account of which something is made).

ACCIDENTAL NON-ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS

Explains a thing based on its characteristics which are not essential or necessary to the essence.

Too simple

• in character cannot be analyzed but they can only be experienced

• Simple things you cannot define

Too general

- Definitions are those supreme genera like the trancendentals.

“di/dis”

means “off, apart”

“vis/vedeo or vedere”

which means “to see”

DIVISION

• Means that we need to see a particular thing apart from other thing

• Real definition: resolving or separating the whole into its specific parts

REAL DIVISION

It is the resolution of a thing or a real thing into its natural parts which is independent of the mind. Classified into physical and metaphysical

PHYSICAL REAL DIVISION

is a resolution of a thing into its physical parts, that is, parts belonging to the nature of a thing, mutually distinct and separable.

METAPHYSICAL REAL DIVISION:

resolve a thing into its various grades of being contained in the comprehension of a thing. These are parts beyond the physical elements of a thing.

LOGICAL DIVISION

it is the resolution of the universal idea into members of its extension

“Jus, dicere”

means “to pronounce one’s right”

JUDGEMENT

an act of the intellect or mental operation that affirms or denies one idea with another.

MATTER

two ideas are compared, the subject-idea and predicate-idea.

FORM

Which is the mental pronouncement of agreement or disagreement between two ideas.