Universa Philosophia

The Summulists divide ascent and descent fourfold, into copulate and copulative; disjunct and disjunctive. Copulative is when descent is made from the universal to singulars, as omnis homo currit, ergo et Petrus currit, et Paulus currit: because, they say, one proposition is coupled to the others. But this descent is distributive, because we distribute the common predicate to each of the inferior terms. They call descent copulate when one descends from the superior to the inferiors not one by one and separately, but collected: as all the Apostles are twelve, thus by descent it is explained, therefore Peter, Andrew, and the other Apostles are twelve, a true doctrine, but this descent is the same as copulative; for I have shown that the difference between copulate and copulative cannot be sought without trifling. They call descent disjunctive when one descends from the common account to singulars with a disjunction, or, as a man, or some man runs, therefore either Peter runs, or Paul runs. This doctrine I approve. They call it disjunct when one descends from the common account to particulars, not stopping in the singulars by themselves, but descending to all under a disjunction, as a horse is required for riding, it infers, therefore either this one, or that one, or another is required; for none is required in particular.