Universa Philosophia

In this part the Summulists are intolerable, burdened with so many rules, divisions, and useless definitions that they seem to accomplish nothing except to devise engines of darkness to defeat the minds of beginners, lest they dare to set foot in such a foul chaos: let him who wishes read Soto laboring sufficiently in dispelling those darknesses. I, with Villalpandus, Toletus, and Fonseca, have judged that these trifles must be abstained from, and that the more frequent and useful species of common supposition must be handed down. Distributive supposition is that by which a common term is supposited, resolvable by descent affected with the conjunction "and," or with the disjunction "neither": as in omnis homo est animal the term is supposited for all men, to whom descent or resolution is made by a legitimate consequence, e.g. ergo Petrus est animal, et Antonius est animal; this is what Soto, Toletus, and Villalpandus intend by their definitions. For if the common term is affected by the affirmative categorematic word omnis, the whole of its universality being retained, certainly the predicate is distributed through the individual inferiors contained under the predicate: for example. Omnis homo est animal is thus distributed, ergo Petrus est animal, et Paulus est animal. Fonseca says that this is to be resolved through various propositions, which is not necessary; for it can also be resolved through one, as ergo Petrus, et ceteri individui homines sunt animal. Likewise if the common term is affected by the negative categorematic word nullus, its universality being retained, the proposition is resolved through the disjunction "neither," as nullus homo est lapis: thus it is resolved. ergo nec Petrus est lapis, nec Paulus, nec ullus individuus homo est lapis. This supposition they call copulative: because in affirmative supposition a proposition is coupled to a proposition, which I shall impugn below. Because it is copulative by which a term is supposited for a copulated or copulative term; for words receive their denominations from the terms for which they are subrogated, but not from the nexus of many propositions.