Universa Philosophia

=== ENGLISH Wonderful was the genius of Peter of Spain, who surpassed Aristotle in handing down the doctrine of the modal proposition in bk. 1 of the Summulae ch. 13, which I shall try to explain clearly and briefly, omitting the trifles and tricks of the Summulists, by which they captiously delude the minds of beginners and deter them. This disputation is made difficult enough by so great a multiplicity of words, so that darkness is deliberately poured upon darkness. For neither do the towers of Cyzicus, or the porticoes of Olympia, resound with echo so many times from reflected voices, as often as a modal proposition is doubled. For if those words strike back twice seven times, the modes are refracted twice eight times, striking the ears of the audience and disturbing the mind: but I shall try to give the reason of the common doctrine, which I think is not altogether easy.

=== ENGLISH Mode taken broadly is the limitation or restriction of some speech or word, which is made through adjective terms, as omnis homo iustus, or through substantive terms in an oblique case, as omnis liber Aristotelis, or through adverbs, disjunctions, etc., about which we do not treat at present. But we treat of the mode restricting a proposition in one determinate matter. We have said that matter is threefold: necessary, remote, contingent; to which three modes correspond, necessary, impossible, contingent, to which is added also a fourth, namely possible, which however differs little from contingent. For in the present disputation, for the sake of clarity, that we may comply with common usage, we shall discuss it reciprocally with possible. A modal proposition is made in two ways: either through a mode taken adverbially, or adjectivally, as Deus necessario est unus, or Deum esse unum, est necessarium; by which adjectival mode the whole proposition is changed, and the mode becomes the predicate. For Deum esse is the subject of which esse necessarium is predicated. But in this Deus necessario est unus, unity is predicated of God, but necessity is neither subjected nor predicated, but is a syncategorema of the subject.

=== ENGLISH The mode is customarily interposed, as sedentem possibile est stare; or customarily placed before, as non est possibile sedentem stare; or customarily placed after, as stantem sedere est possibile; yet it always yields the same sense, which sense is twofold, composite and divided. It is composite when the predicate is joined to the subject for the same time at once, as stantem sedere est impossibile, that is, while he stands; it is divided when the predicate is attributed to the subject not for the same time but for a different one, as stantem sedere est possibile, that is, at the time when he does not stand, as I said on ampliation in disputation 2. Here however note that some modes are modes of composition (as Hispanus says) which compose the predicate with the subject, as Petrus contingenter disputat composes contingency with disputing; but other modes signify how a thing is done, as Petrus docte disputat shows in what manner he conducted himself in disputing. Soto, lecture 1, notable 3, calls a proposition made through an adverb of composition a divided modal, as Petrus contingenter disputat, but one made through a verb he calls a composite modal, as Petrum disputare est contingens.

=== ENGLISH Modal propositions have their truth or falsity. An affirmative proposition in necessary matter is true, and the negative false, as hominem esse animal est necessarium, hominem esse animal non est necessarium; in a word you will discern truth and falsity: for if they affirm the thing as it is, they are true, but if otherwise, false. But they are always false, or always true, for they are true in natural matter, but false in remote matter; for although the dictum (that is, the subject) is in contingent matter, the mode however (that is, the predicate) is in natural or remote matter, as Petrum disputare est contingens, Petrum esse lapidem est possibile. Likewise this proposition, Petrum disputare est contingens, is a modal proposition: it is not modal, but absolute, because being modal belongs to it absolutely; nor is that reflexive predicate modal, for this requires that the predicate through the principal copula be a mode, as Petrum currere est contingens. They have also quantity: the universal ones are impossibile and necesse; the particular ones however contingens and possibile. Note that the quantity of modals is to be weighed absolutely from the quantity of the mode, and not from the quantity of the dictum. But we call dictum the other parts of the proposition distinct from the mode, of which below.