Lesson Five

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Lesson Five

• The Categories and
• Opposition
• Part I, L. 5

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Introduction

• We can order the natures of all the things we
  know according as they are more or less
  universal. We can also place them in genuses
  which are included within other, more universal
  genuses.
• The most universal genuses are known as
  Categories.

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The Difference Between thePredicables and the
Categories

• When we considered the Predicables, we looked at
  the relationship between a universal concept and
  its inferiors (the logical universal), which we
  divided into five types, the Predicables.
• When speaking of the Categories, we are referring
  to the simple natures themselves as existing in
  singular things.

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• In Logic, we are interested in the natures of
  things only insofar as we can organize them into
  Categories.
• The Categories, then, are the highest genera
  under which we can organize the natures of things
  we know.
• We organize what we know under a supreme genus.
  Within that highest genus, our concepts are
  ordered according to their degree of universality.

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• Conclusion The Categories are the ordering of
  things we know as genus and species within their
  most universal genus.

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• Why study the Categories?
• For two reasons
• They give us an orderly means of understanding
  and relating the things we know and
• They are useful for defining what we know.

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Five Conditions which mustbe observed in order
to use the Categories

• 1. The things classified within the Categories
  must be natural things. The Categories are not
  adequate for classifying artificial objects.
  Thus, wood can belong to a Category, but
  table cannot. The Categories serve to classify
  concepts, not just words.

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• 2. The Categories can be used to classify simple
  natures, not complex ones in other words, the
  thing categorized must have one nature. Thus,
  horse can be categorized, but white horse
  cannot.

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• 3. What can be included under a Category must be
  capable of being signified by a univocal name,
  not an equivocal or analogous name.

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• 4. Only what is universal can be predicated, so
  only universals can belong to the Categories.
  Singular substance and singular accidents cannot
  be categorized, since they cannot be predicated.
  (What is singular can be the subject of
  predication, never a predicate.)

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• 5. Only natures which are limited can be placed
  in the Categories. What is infinite or limitless
  is too large to fit within a Category. Horse
  can be categorized, but non-horse cannot,
  because it includes too much (every being which
  is not a horse). The purpose of the Categories
  is to help us know things more precisely.

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The Ten Categories

• 1. Substance

The primary meaning of substance is that
which neither exists in a subject nor is
predicable of a subject (singular substance).
The Categories have to do with universal
substances because they are supreme universals,
or highest genera, of all things. Examples of
things which belong to this Category are horse,
man, tree. In general, substance responds to the
question, What is it? Substance is usually
signified by a common noun.
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• 2. Quantity

• Quantity is an accident which renders a substance
• divisible into constituent parts.
• Quantity exists in a subject insofar as it is
  material.
• There are two kinds of quantity
• Discrete quantity, such as numbers (seven, ten)
• Continuous quantity, such as lines, planes,
• and surfaces.
• In general, quantity responds to the question,
  How much or how many is it?

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• The difference between the two kinds of quantity
  has to do with the existence or lack of a natural
  unit. The existence in English of two separate
  words (much and many) refers to this fact. These
  words are not differentiated in Spanish (mucho
  refers to both discrete and continuous
  quantities).

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3. Quality

• Quality is an accident of substance which makes
  it to be in a certain way. For example,
  whiteness is a quality in virtue of which we
  call things white. There are four kinds of
  quality, which is a wide-reaching Category.
• In general, quality responds to the question,
  How is it? It is often, though not always,
  signified by an adjective.

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• Habit or disposition, the first species of
  quality, dispose a substance well or badly. A
  habit is firmly established, such as a science or
  a moral virtue. One who possesses the habit of
  mathematics has the mental habits that enable him
  to think correctly and easily about mathematical
  matters.
• A disposition differs from a habit in that it is
  not so firmly established, and is therefore more
  easily changed, such as an opinion or a mere
  tendency.

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• b. Capacity or incapacity are the power or
  capacity which dispose a substance to act, such
  as health or strength. Incapacity or
  incapability are diminished or imperfect powers,
  such as blindness.

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• c. Sensible qualities are qualities which affect
  the external senses, such as sweetness or
  whiteness.

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• d. Figure and form. Figure is the quality which
  determines or limits quantity, such as
  triangularity or curvedness. Form refers to a
  certain pleasing proportion or beauty of the
  termination of quantity. Form is more easily
  understood when considering artifacts (such as a
  statue), although these do not belong to the
  Categories.

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4. Relation

• Relation is an accident which exists in a subject
  as the result of its relation to something else,
  such as superiority, smallness, maternity.
• We say something is better in relation to
  something which is worse.
• We say something is small in relation to
  something which is large. Small is a
  relative term, not an absolute.
• We say someone is a mother in light of a
  relation to her child. A woman is a mother
  because she has a child.

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5. Action

• Action is an accident resulting from a subject
  acting upon something, such as to throw, to
  strike, to do.
• In general, action responds to the question,
• What does it do?
• Actions are usually signified by transitive verbs.

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6. Passion or Passivity

• Passion (sometimes called passivity) is an
  accident resulting from something acting upon a
  subject. It has a correlation to the Category of
  Action, which may be understood to be the action
  from point of view of the agent, while Passion
  may be understood to be the same action from the
  point of view of the object or recipient. For
  example, to be thrown, to be struck, to be made.
• Passions are usually signified by passive verbs.

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7. When

• The when of an object is an accident which
  exists in a subject resulting from the
  containment of that subject in time, for example,
  yesterday, on Monday, last year.
• The Category When refers to time, but is not time
  itself. Year does not belong to this Category,
  as it is a measure of time, not an accident of a
  subject existing in time, but last year does
  belong to the category because it situates an
  event within a timeframe.
• We can be more general or more precise with
  regard to When, as suits our purpose.

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8. Where

• The Category of Where has a reference to place in
  the same way the Category of When has a reference
  to time. That is, the Where of something
  implies its being contained within a place. As
  with When, we can be more or less precise when
  speaking of Where something is.
• Examples are here, in this room, in San
  Juan, on Earth.

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9. Position

• Position, sometimes called Posture, is an
  accident which exists in a subject as a result of
  a certain order or arrangement of its parts. For
  example, seated, standing, or kneeling. It
  should not be confused with Where, for the same
  subject is in the same space whether it is
  sitting or kneeling. It also applies to
  inanimate objects, for example folded.

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10. Habitus

• There is a difficulty about naming the tenth
  Category, which refers to an accident which
  results from a human subject wearing clothing,
  weapons, jewelry, etc. The Latin name Habitus is
  used to avoid confusing this Category with the
  sort of Habit or Disposition which is the second
  species of Quality.
• Examples dressed, armed, shod.

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The Four Kinds of Opposition

• Opposition between two concepts is a consequence
  arising from our having placed them in Categories
  as a result of having distinguished and organized
  them. It is stronger than mere difference, since
  not everything which is different is opposed.
• There are four kinds, of which the first is the
  strongest and most absolute.

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1. Contradictory Opposition

• Contradictory opposition is the strongest and
  most fundamental type of opposition. It is the
  opposition between being and non-being, the total
  incapacity for co-existence of the two. It is
  expressed as a total negation, often by the
  prefix no- non- or un- for example, the
  opposition between human and non-human.

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2. Privative Opposition

• Privative opposition is the opposition between a
  form and the absence of that form in a subject
  capable of possessing it. For example, sighted
  and blind are opposed in this way. Note that
  we limit our use of the term blind only to
  subjects which would normally be expected to be
  able to see. We say that people or animals are
  blind, never that stones or trees are blind.
• Privative opposition is a more limited type of
  opposition than contradictory opposition, since
  it is not an absolute incapacity of co-existence,
  only the incapacity to co-exist in the same
  subject.

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• With both contradictory and privative opposition,
  we contrast a positive with a negative
  expression, often by using a characteristic
  prefix (though it is unwise to perform a
  perfunctory analysis of this kind to determine
  whether the opposition is contradictory or
  privative.)
• Privative opposition is sometimes signified by
  prefixes such as im-, i-, a-, as with
  moral and immoral, logical and illogical,
  symmetrical and asymmetrical, etc.

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3. Contrary Opposition

• Contrary opposition is the opposition between two
  positive things which are considered to be the
  extremes within one genus. The presence of one
  excludes the other from co-existing in the same
  subject at the same time. For example, we say
  that black and white are opposed in this way,
  as are sweet and sour, odd and even,
  handsome and ugly, smart and stupid.
  What is black may become white, but cannot be
  white while it is black.

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• Black and white are equally colors. Both
  have a positive existence in the same sense.
• There is a weaker opposition between them than in
  the case of contradictory or privative opposition.

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4. Relative Opposition

• Relative opposition is the opposition between two
  things which mutually refer to each other, for
  example, double and half, father and son,
  more and less, large and small, right
  and left.
• Again, both have a positive existence, but one
  cannot be understood except in reference to the
  other. Here the incapacity to co-exist is even
  more limited, being only the incapacity to
  co-exist in the same subject at the same time and
  in the same respect.

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• One subject can simultaneously (but not in the
  same respect) be a father and a son, be large and
  small, or be double and half.
• For example, ten (a quantity) is at the same
  time the double of five and half of twenty.
  Double and half are truly opposed. The things
  between which there exists this kind of
  opposition may belong to different Categories,
  not just Relation.