An introduction to the art of logick composed for the use of English schools, and all such who having no opportunity of being instructed in the Latine tongue ... / by John Newton ...

CHAP. XIV. Of Opposition.

HAving done with the Antepredicaments, and the Predicaments themselves, the Postpredicaments now follow, and they are four.

• Opposition, Order, Motion and Manner of having.

2. Opposition is such a repugnancy of two simple terms, as neither the one can agree with the other, nor both of them with a third, after one and the same manner.

3. One of the opposites is either opposed to,

one or to many; those oppositions, where one is opposed to many, are called Disparates; as a man and a horse, of which Aristotle in his Lo∣gick makes no mention, nor are they to be reckoned amongst the kinds of opposition.

4. Those oppositions where one is opposed to one, are either of a thing and a thing, or of a ••hing and not a thing.

5. Opposition of a thing and a thing; is ei∣ther Relative or Contrary.

6. Relative opposition, is between the rela∣••ive terms, as the relate and his correlate: for though the relates do mutually depend upon one another, in reference to their simple being, yet are they opposed to one another in refe∣rence to their being in a subject: as father and son, but this is the least kind of opposition: The conditions belonging to these are set down in the Predicament of Relation.

7. Contrary opposition is between contrary ••erms: And these are called contraries, that being contained under the same Genus, are at the greatest distance between themselves, and mutually expell one another, from the same subject, that is capable of them; as heat and cold.

8. Contraries are of two sorts, mediate and immediate.

9. Immediate contraries are such as admit

of no medium between them, but the one of them is always in the subject, that is capable of them, as like and unlike, health and sick∣ness.

10. Mediate contraries are such as do admit of some medium; so that though one be ex∣pelled it is not necessary that the other should be in that subject, from which the first is ex∣pelled, as white and black.

The Canons or Rules of Contraries are these following.

• 1. True contrarietie by it self is not to be found but in qualities by themselves, and absolutely ta∣ken.
• 2. Contraries in the highest degrees, canno•• be in the same subject; so what is hot in the highest degree cannot be cold at all; but in remiss degrees they may both be in the same subject.
• 3. One of the contraries being remitted, the other is intended or heightened and the contrary: for every subject capable of two contrary qualities, must needs be filled up with the whole possible latitude of one of them.

11. Opposition of a thing and not a thing, is either privative or contradictory.

12. Privative opposition, is between Habit and privation. And Habit is the presence of a thing in a fit subject; but privation is the ab∣sence

thereof: as sight is a habit, blindness, pri∣vation.

The Canons or Rules are three.

• 1. Habit and privation are ab••ut the same subject. And hence privation cannot properly be, but in that subject which is capable of the Habit; a man therefore may be said to be blind, but a stone cannot.
• 2. Privative opposition requires determinati∣on of a certain time; neither can privation be spoken of a subject, but after the time that by its nature and fitness it might receive the habit; as none can be said to be bald, until the time that according to nature, they should have hair.
• 3. From privation to habit there is no regress naturally, the privation being perfect; that is, such as doth take away the act, and next be∣ginnings of habit, and leaveth nothing in the subject but the remote beginnings thereof; thus he that is once quite blind, cannot ordina∣rily and by natural means ever see again.

13. Contradictory opposition is between con∣tradictory terms. And those things are said to be contradictory, which are expresly con∣trary as affirmation and negation: as a thing and not a thing, a man and not a man.

The Canons or Rules are two.

• 1. Contradiction is the first of all oppositions,

• and so the measure of all the rest: for in every opposition there is virtually included a contra∣diction; and the opposition is to be thought so much the greater, by how much it cometh nearer to a contradiction.
• 2. Between contradictory things, there is no medium; neither of abnegation, or of the subject, (and therefore one of the contradictory things is affirmed of a thing, and not a thing) nor of participation, or of the form.