12. Equivocation by Reason and the Properties of Substance

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

Equivocation by Reason vs. Equivocation by Chance #

• Equivocal by chance: Multiple unrelated meanings with no logical connection
• Equivocal by reason: Multiple meanings with an ordered, intelligible relationship
• The distinction is crucial for understanding philosophical language and even axioms

Three Ways Terms Become Equivocal by Reason #

1. One Thing Keeps the Common Name, Another Receives a New Name

• First way: One thing has nothing noteworthy beyond the common meaning (keeps name); the other has something significant (gets new name)
  • Example: disposition (easy, changeable states) keeps the name; firm dispositions called habit (fr. habitus)
  • The reason: habit has the noteworthy feature of stability/firmness
  • Result: ‘habit is a disposition’ becomes equivocal; Aristotle divides habit against disposition
• Second way: One thing possesses the meaning perfectly/fully (keeps name); another possesses it imperfectly (gets new name)
  • Example: Angels keep the name understanding (fr. intellectus); humans receive the name reason (fr. ratio)
  • Reason: Angels understand directly through created forms; humans must reason things out due to being ‘obscured reason’ (fr. intellectus abum gratis)
  • Example: knowing vs. thinking (or opinion/guess) - when I know ‘2 is half of 4’, I keep ‘know’; my uncertain opinion gets name ’think’

2. Dropping Out Part of the Meaning (Generalization)

• A term extends its meaning by removing restrictive elements while keeping core features
• Example: undergoing (passio, from Latin pati - to suffer)
  • First meaning: being acted upon harmfully (Passion of Christ, external harm)
  • Extended to sensation: ear ‘undergoes’ sound (actually perfects the ear)
  • Further extended to intellect: mind ‘undergoes’ when receiving intelligible forms (fr. intellectus patibilis, ratio patibilis)
  • What’s dropped: the harmful aspect
  • What’s kept: the receptive/passive aspect
• Example: property (fr. proprium)
  • Strict sense: belongs only to one species, to all members, always (Porphyry’s definition)
  • Looser sense: drops the ‘only’ requirement - ‘being less than ten’ is called a property of two, though not unique to two

3. By Ratio or Likeness of Ratios (Proportion)

• Term extends based on proportional relationships between things
• Ratio (from Greek λόγος, logos) can mean both ‘reason’ and ‘ratio/relationship’
• Example: before
  • In being: A is before B if A can exist without B, but B cannot exist without A
  • In knowledge: A is before B if A can be known without B, but B cannot be known without A
  • Proportional structure: the relationship between being and non-being mirrors the relationship between knowing and not-knowing
• Example: political (from polis, city)
  • First meaning: pertaining to the city/state itself
  • Extended meanings: government, law, revolution - all related to the city by ratio
  • Each has a different distance from the first meaning
• Analogy (from Greek ἀναλογία, analogia = proportion/correspondence) technically refers to this third way only

Distinction: Analogous vs. Equivocal by Reason #

• Berquist corrects himself: ‘analogous’ is narrower than ’equivocal by reason’
• Many equivocal-by-reason terms do NOT work through ratio/proportion
• Risk: identifying all analogous terms with equivocation by reason is misleading
• Thomas sometimes uses ‘analogous’ broadly, but strictly it means proportional relationship

The Categories and Substance #

Four Meanings of Substance (from Aristotle’s Categories) #

1. What a thing is (τί ἐστι, ousia) - the essence/what it is
2. First substance (substantia prima) - individual substance (you, me, this dog)
3. Second substance (substantia secunda) - universal substance (man, animal, genera and species)
4. Substance as common mode - when speaking of ‘individual substance’ generally

First vs. Second Substance and Order #

• First substance: nature as individually subsisting in itself
• Second substance: nature understood universally/absolutely
• Species is more substance than genus because species is closer to first substance
  • Reason 1: Saying ‘Dwayne is a man’ tells you more about what Dwayne is than ‘Dwayne is an animal’
  • Reason 2: Proportional likeness - as first substance underlies species, so species underlies genus
• In wisdom (metaphysics), only first substance is truly called substance
• In logic, second substance is legitimately called substance because logic concerns things as they exist in the mind
• The distinction between first and second is not a genus divided into species, but a distinction by order and reason

Properties of Substance #

First Group - Pertaining to Substance Alone:

1. Common to first and second: Not in a subject (οὐ καθ’ ὑποκειμένου, non in subiecto)
   • Substance is said of something but does not exist in another
2. Property of second substance: Said only univocally in the narrow sense
   • Means: signifying what a thing is, not denominatively
   • Example: ‘man’ said of specific individuals signifies what they are; not a name derived from something else
3. Property of first substance: Being a ’this something’ (τόδε τι, hoc aliquid or tode ti)
   • First substance is individual, complete in its nature
   • Humans are not hoc aliquid in this way - we achieve completion only with our body rejoined to our soul in resurrection

Second Group - Can Also Belong to Other Categories (Shared with Quantity):

1. Not having a contrary: Substances do not have contraries (neither man nor animal has a contrary)
2. Not admitting more or less: A substance does not become more or less what it is (a man does not become ‘more man’ or ’less man’)
   • This relates to lacking contraries: contraries form a continuum allowing gradation
   • Example: black and white allow degrees (gray, golden-brown, etc.); hot and cold allow degrees
   • Numbers, like substances, have no contrary and admit no more or less

Key Arguments #

Why Second Substance is Not Purely Equivocal by Reason #

• If ‘substance’ means something different when applied to ‘man’ vs. ‘Dwayne’, we must explain the relationship
• The relationship is by order and reason: man is substance because it is characteristic of individuals
• This is equivocation by reason (not by chance) because there is an intelligible order connecting the meanings

Why Understanding Equivocation by Reason Matters #

• Even basic logical axioms depend on terms equivocal by reason
• Modern philosophers often fail to distinguish senses of key terms (example given: Marx never distinguishes meanings of ‘opposite’ despite it being central to dialectical materialism)
• Confusion between equivocal-by-reason meanings leads to sophistical arguments

How Nature Relates to Number #

• Shakespeare and Aristotle: natures of things are like numbers
• Stone = 1 (just body)
• Plant = 2 (body + life)
• Animal = 3 (body + life + sensation)
• Man = 4 (body + life + sensation + reason)
• Therefore: ‘more’ and ’less’ are tied to number and hierarchy of nature

Important Definitions #

• Ratio (λόγος, logos): relationship or proportion; also means reason - showing the connection between reasoning and proportional structure
• Analogia (ἀναλογία): proportion or correspondence; technical term for equivocation by ratio/likeness of ratios
• Proprium (proper): that which belongs to one species, to all members of that species, and always
• Substantia (οὐσία): essence, being, substance - can mean what a thing is, or individual substance, or universal substance depending on context
• Passio (from pati, to undergo/suffer): being acted upon; originally means suffering harm, but extended to perfect reception (as in sensation and intellection)
• Hoc aliquid (τόδε τι): ’this something’ - individual, complete in itself

Examples & Illustrations #

The Sunset #

• Berquist and his wife witnessed a beautiful Virginia sunset during outdoor dinner
• The sunset pleased them when seen - beauty is primarily an object of knowledge (sight), not love
• Illustrates how sensory perception perfects the sense organ

Health and Healthy #

• Healthy body is the first, primary meaning
• Healthy diet: the diet is not itself healthy but a sign of health (a sign that promotes health)
• This creates equivocation by reason through proportion (diet relates to health as sign relates to thing signified)

Blood Pressure Reading #

• Berquist’s recent doctor visit: blood pressure measured at 120/70
• Doctor said ’that’s healthy’ - meaning it’s a sign of a healthy body, not health itself
• Shows how we speak equivocally by reason in everyday life without noticing

Political Philosophy and the City #

• Polis originally means city, especially sovereign city
• Minneapolis = ‘city of waters’ (mini- from Indian for waters/lakes)
• Political philosophy speaks first about the polis, but extends to government, law, revolution
• Each extends by its ratio to the city: government rules (like the city as sovereign); law governs (like the city as ordering principle); revolution changes the city’s form

Disposition and Habit #

• Disposition can mean easily-changed states (moods)
• Berquist example: meeting a friend in bad mood; later, after cocktails, the mood changes
• Habit means firm disposition: something that has a ‘hold on you’
• The word ‘disposition’ becomes equivocal: sometimes means mood (temporary), sometimes means character (stable)
• Reason for equivocation: one has noteworthy stability, so gets new name; one keeps original name

Definition and Property #

• Property: belongs only to one species, to all members, always (example: ‘being half of four’ is property of 2)
• Definition: a special kind of property that also brings out what the thing is
• Aristotle divides definition against property, making property equivocal by reason
• Some properties are convertible (bidirectional) but don’t reveal essence; definitions are convertible AND reveal essence

Mozart and the Human Voice #

• Before Mozart wrote soprano arias, no one knew how beautiful a woman’s voice could be
• Soprano who first sang Mozart’s aria was ‘beside herself’ with joy
• Her voice reaching its perfection (apotheosis) in song
• Illustrates how sensation involves passive reception that perfects the sense organ

Understanding and Reason #

• Angels have intellectus (understanding/intellect): direct intuitive knowing of all their forms
• Humans have ratio (reason): obscured, darkened reason needing to think things out
• Yet we keep the name ‘understanding’ for the angel’s faculty because it has the perfection
• We give humans the name ‘reason’ because theirs is imperfect, requires discursive thinking
• Thomas says humans have intellectus abum gratis (overshadowed reason)

Notable Quotes #

“One thing that I think you got a little mixed up with, and I think I was someone mixed up with… Thomas was talking about naming God… when a name can be said properly, both of God and of us, it’s said univocally, or equivocally, or in some other way. And Thomas shows… it’s not said univocally… but it’s also not said purely equivocally… therefore he says it’s being said… by analogy.”

“Proportion, I think, is used by Thomas as a word somewhat equivocal by reason… But Thomas seems to use the word proportion like the modern physicist or chemist does, for ratio… Although maybe sometimes for a likeness of ratios.”

“I sometimes would kind of identify an analogous word with a word equivocal by reason, as opposed to one equivocal by chance. And I wonder if a word equivocal by reason isn’t more general than a name that’s analogous.”

“Being is primarily substance, right? That’s why we’ve got to study substance. It’s book seven and eight. The wisdom are all about substance.”

“Species is more substance than genus because it’s closer to first substance. When you ask, what is Dwayne Berquist? You could say he’s an animal, or you could say he’s a man. But you’re closer to me when you say I’m a man.”

“Sometimes it’s because one of these two has nothing worth noting, nothing noteworthy beyond what’s the common meaning of both. But sometimes one of the two has something really significant and noteworthy. So we give it a new name.”

Questions Addressed #

Is There One Way That Terms Become Equivocal by Reason? #

• Answer: No. There are at least three distinct ways:
  1. One thing keeps the common name, another gets a new name (via one being noteworthy, or one having the meaning perfectly)
  2. One thing retains the name by dropping out part of the term’s meaning (generalization)
  3. Proportional relationships (ratio or likeness of ratios)
• Thomas and modern scholars sometimes use ‘analogous’ to cover all three, but strictly analogous refers only to the third

How Can Aristotle Say ‘Habit is a Disposition’ and Also ‘Divide Habit Against Disposition’? #

• Answer: The word ‘disposition’ has become equivocal by reason
• When speaking of firm dispositions specifically, ‘habit’ is the more proper term
• When speaking generally, ‘disposition’ can include both temporary moods and firm habits
• There is a good reason (one has notable stability) why the word became equivocal

Does ‘Being Less Than Ten’ Count as a Property of 2? #

• Answer: Yes, but equivocally with other properties
• Strict sense of property (Porphyry): belongs only to 2, to all 2s, always - example: ‘half of 4’
• Loose sense: drops the ‘only’ requirement but keeps ‘all’ and ‘always’
• ‘Being less than ten’ belongs to all 2s and always, but not uniquely to 2
• The word ‘property’ has become equivocal by reason (by dropping part of meaning)

Why Should We Care About Distinguishing These Senses? #

• Answer: Philosophical clarity requires it
• Even basic axioms like ’the whole is greater than the part’ depend on understanding equivocal-by-reason terms
• Failure to distinguish leads to sophistry and false arguments
• Modern example: Marx’s dialectical materialism fails because it never distinguishes what ‘opposite’ means, leading to confusion

Connection to Broader Course Topics #

• To Metaphysics (Wisdom): Fifth book of Metaphysics is devoted to words equivocal by reason; Books 7-8 on material substance; Book 12 on immaterial substance and God
• To Logic: Categories establish the fundamental divisions of being; distinctions in anti-predicaments precede the ordered treatment in predicaments
• To Theology: Understanding equivocation by reason is essential for speaking properly about God and divine attributes