Monitio logica, or, An abstract and translation of Burgersdicius his logick by a gentleman.

COMMENTARY.

1 §. Those things which are by Aristotle call'd 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, are by Cicero called Contraries. We call them Opposed. Of Oppositions, one is in things ano∣ther in Affirmation and Negation; that is an Affe∣ction of Simple, this of Complex Themes. Of Op∣positions of things which is of this Place, Aristotle treats Cap. 10. of the Categories; of the other in his Book of Interpret. In both, four Conditions are required, which are delivered Cap. 5. of his Book de Soph. Elench. The first is, that it be according to the same, that is, according to the same Part, or Na∣ture. The other is, that it should be to the same,

that is, in the same respect. The third, in the same Manner. The fourth in the same time. If with these Conditions Opposites are predicated of each other, the Predication will be false: As, a Man is an Horse, Blindness is the Sight: Or, if both are predicated of any one Third, one of them must be false, as Socrates sees, Socrates is blind: If of one another or any Third they are affirmed truly, of Necessity one of the Con∣ditions must be wanting. For Example: To be Da∣vid's Lord, and Son, agrees with the same Christ, but not according to the same: For Christ is David's Lord as to his Divine, his Son as to his Humane Nature. So the Number of four is both a Double and a Half; but not to the same: For it's the Double of Two, and the Half of Eight. Besides 'tis true, both that the World has, and the World has not a Beginning, but not in the same Manner: For the World has a Begin∣ning of Duration, but not of Magnitude, because round. Lastly, it is true, that of old the Miletians were vali∣ant, and of old, the Miletians were not valiant; but not at the same time.

2. §. But altho' Opposites cannot be predicated of the same, saving these Conditions; Nothing hin∣ders but that the same may be predicated of things opposed; as Colour, of Whiteness and Blackness; Ani∣mal, of Beast and Man, &c. and this brings us to the next Considerations, viz. That,

Ax. 3. Opposites are together in Nature, and That,

Ax. 4. The Knowledge of them is the same.

1. §. The first of these Axioms is extant Book 6. of the Top. Cap. 4. The latter, Book 1. of the Top. Cap. 14.2. Cap. 2.6. Cap. 6. and almost every where. The Meaning of the last, may be two-fold, and first, that both appertain to one Science, as that the same which for Instance treats of Virtue may al∣so treat of Vice; and of Diseases, also of Health. Secondly that one opposite being known, the other may be known also. 5thly,

Ax. 5. Opposites plac'd, near to each other, are the more Illustrated.

1. §. This is the same with the old Saying which is deliver'd Book 3. of the Rhetor. Cap. 2. Contraries by Contra∣ries are illustrated; the Use of which is to be seen Cap. 2. of the Rhet. Where the contrary Affects and Man∣ners of young and old Men are so conferr'd together, that by the mutual Collation of them, they are very much illu∣strated.

Ax. 6. The Species's of Opposites are five, viz. Disparates, Contraries, Relatively Opposed, Privatively Opposed, and Contradictings; and we prove it in this Manner, viz.

1. §. An Opposite is either opposed to many or one. Those of which one is opposed to many, are call'd Dis∣parates; when one to one, the Opposition is, either between Being and no Being, or between Being and Be∣ing. Those Opposed as Being and Being, are either Absolute, or Related: Those are said to be Contraries, these Relatively Opposed: Those things that are oppo∣sed as Being and no Being, either have the same Sub∣ject, or they have not; Those that have the same Subject, are said to be privatively opposed; those that have not, to be Contradictings.

2. §. Aristotle makes no mention of Disparates in his Logicks, where he professedly treats of the Species's of Opposites; but yet he does in the 4th Book of his Metaph. Cap. 10. where he calls them diverse in Species, that is, those things that are affected after a contrary Manner by reason of their Essence: But to pro∣ceed,

Ax. 7. Disparates are those of which one is opposed to many after the same manner.

1. §. So Man and Horse, and White and Blue, are Dis∣parates; because Man is not only oppos'd to Horse, but also to Dog, Lion, and other Species's of Beasts; and White not only to Blue, but also to Red, Green, and the other mediate Colours, in the same manner, that is, in the same Genus of Opposition: But now Black and

White are not Disparates, notwithstanding they may be opposed not only to Black, but also to the middle Colours: For because White is other ways opposed to Black, than it is to the Middle Colours. So neither Freeman and Servant are Disparates, notwithstand∣ing Servant is not only opposed to Freeman, but also to Master; because the Genus of Opposition in both is not the same: For Servant and Master are Relatives, whilst Freeman and Servant are Contraries, which leads us to the next Axiom, viz. That,

Ax. 8. Contraries are two absolute things the farthest distant under the same Genus.

1. §. Aristotle Cap. 6. of the Categ. defines Contra∣ries in this manner, viz. to be those things which are the farthest distant under the same Genus: But that Definition seems to be less full; because it suits also with Disparates, and those that are Relatively op∣posed.

2. §. Contraries are two so said, because in this respect they may differ from Disparates which are more than two; or at least, nothing hinders but that they may be so. Absolute, in that they differ from such as are Relatively opposed. It is added under the same Genus, to wit, either the next, as Whiteness and Blackness, under Colour; or remote, as Justice and In∣justice, under Habit. In that they are distinguished from Contradictings, and those which are privatively opposed.

3. §. Nor does it hinder, which Arisiotle says Cap. 11. of the Categ. that Good and Bad, which are Contra∣ries, are not under the same Genus, but Genus's themselves: For Aristotle seems to say that out of the Pythagorean Opinion, who constituted two Series's or Orders of things, one good, tho other bad, as Aristotle himself te∣stifies, Book 1. of his Metaph. Cap. 5. For since Good and Evil are to be found in all Categories, as Ens, as is taught Book 1. of the Ethicks, Cap. 4. they cannot be chief Genus's. To which I add, that in Metaphy∣sicks, where Good is considered as a common Affection

of a thing, Evil is not contrary to it; but privatively opposed. In Ethicks Good and Evil indeed are Con∣traries, but contain'd under the same Genus, to wit, ei∣ther Habit or Moral Action, which Aristotle uses to call Practice or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. See Ammonius and Simplicius up∣on the 11th Cap. of the Categories.

4. §. There is farther added most distant, viz. either as to Form or Place: For so the Philosopher distinguish∣es Contrariety, Book 5. of the Physicks, Cap. 2. and Book 2. of the Meteors, Cap. 6. as, that one is in Quality, which he calls Contrariety according to Form; the other in Ubi, or where; which he calls Con∣trariety according to Place: Contraries in Quality are Black and White, Virtue and Vice, streight and crooked, Servant and Free. In Place, which in a Sphere or Circle are Diametrically opposed, as the Ar∣tick and Antartick Poles, &c. Hitherto also is to be referred Contrariety of Motions, which is situate in the contrary Habitude of Terms: So that the Term to which, of one Motion, is the Term from which, of the other; and so on the Contrary. Thomas calls it a Contrariety of Access and Recess: So Generation and Corruption, Ac∣cretion and Diminution, Calefaction and Frigefacti∣on, Ascent and Descent, are Contraries, &c. And therefore when in the Book of the Categ. the Philoso∣pher includes Contrariety amongst the Qualities, and denies it to have Place in Substance and Quantity, he is to be esteemed to take the Word in a very strict Sense; and so we proceed to the following Axiom, viz. That,

Ax. 9. Contraries mutually destroy each other, and the one is always remitted by the Contagion of the other.

1. §. So asserts Aristotle Book 2. of the Heavens, Cap. 3. For Example: When Water is made hot, as much Cold decedes from it as is impress'd upon it of Heat from elsewhere, and if a Contrary, is sometimes intended by a Contrary by Antiparistasis, that happens only by Acci∣dent.

Ax. 10. Contraries cannot be together in the same sin∣gular Subject.

Ax. 11. They are conversant, yet, about the same, either in Species or Genus.

1. §. These Theorems are deliver'd Cap. 11. of the Categ. and the Sense of them is manifest enough. For Example: The same Person cannot at the same time be just and unjust, sick and in Health, nor any thing e∣ven and uneven, cold and hot; Yet Justice and Inju∣stice are in the Soul of Man: Sickness and Health in the Body of the Animal; Even and Uneven in Number, and Cold and Heat in the Elementary Body, &c.

Ax. 12. Contraries are either Mediate or Immedi∣ate.

Ax. 13. Mediate are those between which a Medium, Partaker of both of them is interjected.

Ax. 14. Immediate, between which nothing of a Medium of that Nature is interjected.

1. §. The Medium consider'd in Opposition to pass by other Acceptations is two-fold; one of Form, or Parti∣cipation, the other of Subject or Negation. The Medium of Form, or Participation that is said to be, which is a Partaker of both Extremes: So Warmth is a Medium be∣tween Heat and Cold, Red between Black and White. The Medium of the Subject or Negation is said to be that of which both Extremes are denied: So a Spirit is said to be a Medium between hot and cold, great and small. This Division is to be understood of the Medium of Par∣ticipation: For some Contraries have a Medium of this Nature; as White and Black, Heat and Cold; and some not; as even and uneven, streight and crooked. The Medium of Negation is to be found in all Oppo∣sitions excepting Contradictings: Sometimes it also hap∣ens that a Medium of Participation, wanting a proper Word, is signified by the Negation of its Extreme.

2. §. Of Contraries Immediate there is a Necessity that one of them should be in a Capacious Subject. So of Necessity every Number must be even or odd. Of Mediates, no Necessity for either of them; because

the Medium it self may occupy the Subject: For it is not necessary that a Body should be Black or White; because it may be Red or Green. If yet one of the Me∣diates be proper and natural to the Subject, that, of Ne∣cessity must be in the Subject; and so 'tis necessary that the Fire should be hot, &c.

Ax. 15. Relatively opposed, are those which, that which they are, are said to be of the Opposites, or in any other manner are referred to them.

1. §. Things Related may be consider'd two ways; either as given to divers things; and so they constitute each the other: Or, as to the same, and so they mutually destroy each other, and are really Oppo∣sites; especially if of a diverse Name. For Example: Supposing the Father, you must suppose also the Son: But he who is the Father of any Person cannot be also the Son of the same Person, &c. In Relateds of the same Name, the Opposition does not so well ap∣pear; because of the Identity of the Name.

Ax. 16. Privatively opposed are, Habit and its Pri∣vation.

1. §. Privation sometimes signifies the Absence of the Form which may be introduc'd upon the Subject: So the Privation of the Soul may be said to be in the Seed; of Heat, in cold Water: Sometimes the Absence of the Form, which ought to be in the Subject; that is, a Physical Privation; and is number'd amongst the Principles of Generation; this a Logical, and is signi∣fied in this Place: But whereas there are many Ge∣nus's of things which are to be understood in this Place under the Name of Habit; to wit, Natural Power, Habit strictly so called, Patible Quality, Form, Ope∣ration, Habit in the tenth Category, &c. and that, I say, in a Word, every Accident that may be separa∣ted from the Subject; so also Logical Privation is as va∣rious, viz. Privation of natural Power, as Blindness; of Habit strictly so called as Ignorance; Patible Qua∣lity, as Darkness; Form, as Deformity; such as was in the Chaos; of Operation, as Sleep, Rest; Habit in the

tenth Category, as Nakedness, &c. Sight therefore and Blindness, Knowledge and Ignorance, Light and Dark∣ness, Watchings and Sleep, Motion and Rest, to be cloathed, and to be naked, are privatively oppo∣sed, &c.

2. §. Privation and Habit are conversant about the same Subject, which Subject must be capable of a Habit; that is, such in which a Habit ought to be by Na∣ture, and when it ought to be. Therefore Privation cannot be attributed to any Subject; but that only, which by its own Nature and the time fixed and appoin∣ted by Nature, is apt to receive an opposite Habit. And therefore a Stone cannot be said to be blind; because by its own Nature it is unapt to see; nor an Infant newly born to be Toothless; because it cannot have Teeth from its Nativity, or Birth; and this brings us to reflect upon the next Axiom, viz. That,

Ax. 17. From Privation to Habit there can be no Regress.

1. §. In Privation and Habit, says Aristotle, there can be no reciprocal Change amongst themselves: For altho' there may be a Mutation from Habit to Pri∣vation, yet from Privation to Habit there cannot be; but this must be understood of Privation of natu∣ral Power, which is the greatest Privation: For the Blind cannot Naturally recover their lost Sight: But from a Privation of those other things recited above, a Regress is frequently given.

Ax. 18. Contradictings are Ens, and non Ens op∣posed.

1. §. As a Man, not a Man; White, not White; to see, and not to see, &c. Contradictings are said to be oppo∣sed as Affirmation and Negation; not that they are Enunciations, but that a Subject being added, they constitute them in Affirmation and Negation, Pugnant or Fighting; as Socrates is a Man, Socrates is not a Man; Socrates is White, Socrates is not White, &c. Farther,

Ax. 19. A Contradiction has no Medium; that is,

1. §. Whether of Negation or Participation.: For to Being and no Being, Nothing is in common. Hi∣therto belongs that Definition of Contradictions, which is extant Book 1. of the Post. viz. That Contra∣diction is an Opposition, which, by it self wants a Me∣dium, &c.

Ax. 20. A Contradiction is the greatest of Opposi∣tions, and the first and Measure of the rest.

1. §. Greatest, because it wants a Medium: First because it pre-supposes no other: Measures the rest, because the first in every Genus, is always the Measure of the rest. For Example: White and Black, to see and to be blind, are therefore truly Opposites; because White is not Black, and to see, not to be blind, &c.

2. §. 'Tis farther to be noted, that of Contradi∣ctions the one may be expressed whilst the other is im∣plied. An Express is then when one of the Extremes is finite, and the other Infinite; as, Man, not Man. Implyed, when, without a Particle of Negation, the one Extreme is overturned by the other; Vulgar∣ly called a Contradiction in the Adject, or Op∣posed in Opposed; as for Instance, if a Man should sya an Unbloody Sacrifice, one body, as in many Places or every where, &c.