Universa Philosophia

A negative term is used in two ways. First for one signifying negation. Secondly for a term actually negating. The first is that which signifies a negative object, namely the negation of a physical thing, as nihil, caecitas, tenebrae, because nihil is the lack of being, caecitas the lack of sight, and tenebrae the lack of light. These terms are divided into abstract and concrete. Abstract ones signify the negation itself precisely apart from the subject, as caecitas, just as positive terms also do. Likewise concrete ones signify the subject in the direct sense, and in the oblique sense connote the lack with which it is affected, as caecus.

These terms are divided into purely negative and privative. Negative terms signify the lack of a form in a subject incapable of it, as non gratus signifies in a stone the lack of grace, of which it is incapable, but in a man it signifies the lack of grace, of which he is capable. Thus a stone cannot be called caecus: because this word signifies a subject apt for sight. Yet it is called non videns: because this word fits also in subjects unfit for sight.

In the second way a negative term is taken, not because it signifies a negative concept, but because by it the proper signification of the name is denied, and another is not excluded; for example, non homo signifies the negation of man, which homo signifies, and does not exclude another signification, as lapis est non homo has this sense, a stone is not a man, but something else which is not a man. Likewise in hoc gymnasio est non homo has this sense, in this school there is not a man, but something else which is not a man. These terms are called infinitating: because by denying the significate of the name they extend the name itself to all things without term and end: as when I say hic est non homo, non homo is extended to God, the angels, animals, and negations themselves: because God is a non-man, and an angel is a non-man, and blindness is a non-man. Note this signification with respect to contradictory propositions.

You can likewise divide the contrary term into a logically contrary term and a physically contrary term. A logically contrary [term] is one that makes propositions contrary, as are the syncategoremata every, no. For these propositions Every man runs, no man runs are contraries because of those words every, no. Physically contrary terms are those whose significates are contrary physical forms, driving each other out of the subject. As heat cold, white black. Which contrariety is better signified in the concrete, as white black, because qualities are opposed in relation to the subject. For in the state of abstraction they are not opposed. Nevertheless they are called contraries because by their nature they connote the subject.

The contradictory term is cut up into as many members. A logically contradictory [term is] one that grounds two propositions contradicting each other. As every man runs, some man does not run. A physically contradictory [term] is one that signifies two immediately opposed things, or one that signifies a form and its privation, as sight blindness. For blindness signifies the privation of sight, or the non-being of sight.