Predication (philosophy)

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Plato and Aristotle used predication to address the Problem of Universals. Sanzio 01 Plato Aristotle.jpg
Plato and Aristotle used predication to address the Problem of Universals.

Predication in philosophy refers to an act of judgement where one term is subsumed under another. [1] A comprehensive conceptualization describes it as the understanding of the relation expressed by a predicative structure primordially (i.e. both originally and primarily) through the opposition between particular and general or the one and the many. [1]

Contents

Predication is also associated or used interchangeably with the concept of attribution where both terms pertain to the way judgment and ideas acquire a new property in the second operation of the mind (or the mental operation of judging [2] ). [3]

Background

Predication emerged when ancient philosophers began exploring reality and the two entities that divide it: properties and the things that bear them. [4] These thinkers investigated what the division between thing and property amounted to. It was argued that the relationship resembled the logical analysis of a sentence wherein the division of subject and predicate arises spontaneously. [4] It was Aristotle who posited that the division between subject and predicate is fundamental and that there is no truth unless a property is "predicated of" something. [4] In Plato's works, predication is demonstrated in the analysis of desire. [5] He stated through Socrates that the type of dominant excess gives its name to the one who has it such as how drunkenness gives its name to a drunkard. [5] Here, predication confirms the reality of this form of excess on the being who partakes in it. [5] Pythagoreans also touched on predication as they explained how number is the essence of everything. [6] They hold that a number has an independent reality, arguing that substances such as fire and water were not the real essences of the things they are predicated. [6] In describing Greek philosophy, Charles Kahn identified predication as one of the three concepts - along with truth and reality - that ontology connected. [7]

It is suggested that predication is equivalent to the German concept of Aussage. [8] In Grundlagen, for instance, Gottlob Frege used this term to state that a statement of a number contains a predication about a concept. [8] As a counterpart of Aussage, predication also appeared in J.C.A. Heyse's Deutsche Grammatik (1814), which influenced the development of the Japanese notion of predication called chinjutsu. [9] This concept was developed by the Japanese logician Yamada Yoshio, who used it to establish the study of modality. [9] Chinjutsu would later be explored by other Japanese logicians such as Takeo Miyake, Minoru Watanabe, and Motoki Tokieda. [10]

Theories

In the philosophy of language, predication is distinguished from the linguistic predication with the notion that a predicable is a metaphysical item and is ontologically predicated of its predicand, usually its subject. [11] The subjects are also distinguished: in linguistic predication, a subject is a grammatical item while in philosophy, it is an item in the ontology. [12] The Aristotelian conceptualization of predication, for instance, focused on the metaphysical configurations that underlie sentences. [12] There are scholars who note that Aristotle's thought on the subject can be distinguished in two levels: ontological (where predicates pertain to things); and, logical (where predicates are something that is said of things). [12] Like Plato, Aristotle used predication to address the Problem of Universals. [13]

In Fregean semantics, predication is described as the relation where "an argument saturates an open position in the function, cf. the simplified formula". [12] In Abū’l-Barakāt al-Baghdādī’s scientific philosophy, predication is the judgment of the existence of a thing towards a thing. [14] It does not constitute a judgment of the world while judgment is the assumption of the predication. It is also considered a completed notion. [14]

According to Willard Van Orman Quine, predication involves the act of connecting singular terms in a referential position and general terms in a predicative position where, in the composed sentence, both terms have different roles. [15] He maintained that predicates do not name, stand for, or rely on the existence of abstract entities (e.g. properties, relations, sets). [16] The way he linked predicates to the things of which they can be predicated is not seen as a full account of the role of the predicates but this allowed his notion to avoid a regress. [16]

Gilles Deleuze maintained that predication is not attribution since substance is not a subject of attribute. [17] In his description of the schema of attribution, Deleuze maintained that the predicate is above all relation and event, not attribute. [18] He drew from Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz' conceptualization of the event, which holds that "the predicate is a verb, and that the verb is irreducible to the copula and to the attribute." [17] The thinker posited that "the world itself is an event and, as an incorporeal (=virtual) predicate, the world must be included in every subject." [19] He maintained that everything has a reason, examining causality by identifying an event as that which happens to a thing with or without cause or reason. [20]

The German philosopher Gottlob Frege also developed his own theory of predication, which held that we can discern first-level predications in a simple proposition in the same way we can identify linguistic functions of a certain kind - one that yield the proposition as value once applied as arguments to one or more constituent names. [21] His conceptual notation, which is taken to mean as universal language, stressed the distinctions between objects and properties or concepts. He maintained that different configurations are necessary for us to speak about objects due to its role in the consideration of the relationship between our language and the objects themselves. [22]

The modern conceptualization of predication describes predication as the foundation or the condition of possibility of sense where sense is approached as belonging to thought and to the ways thought relates to things. [1]

Classifications

Aristotle said that predication can be kath hauto when the predicated universal identifies the subject as what it is, marking this type as de re necessary. [23] [24] It is distinguished from kata sumbebekos predication, which is concerned with how-predication or when the predicated universal merely modifies or characterizes a subject that is antecedently identified as what it is by another universal. [24]

St. Thomas Aquinas explained that attribution or predication may be essential/substantial (per se) or accidental (per accidens). [25] It is per se if the predicate refers to something that belongs to the subject by definition while it is per accidens when a property is attributed to something that is not its own subject. [3] Aquinas also proposed other types of predication such as negative and affirmative, categorical and hypothetical, in necessary and contingent matter, and universal and particular, among others. [3]

E. J. Lowe also proposed two types of predication: dispositional and occurrent. [26] The former describes an object's belonging to a kind possessing some property while the latter describes an object's possessing a trope of some property. [27] A third type was also proposed but it is a dispositional variant to express a law of nature. [27]

Applications

The Predication of Saint Paul The Predication of Saint Paul LACMA M.2000.179.24.jpg
The Predication of Saint Paul

In addressing the Problem of Universals, Aristotle established a kind of predication where universal terms are involved in a relation of predication provided some facts that are expressed by ordinary sentences hold. [28] It is also argued that the particular instantiates or participates in the universal, hence, universals may be needed for the predication of relations. [29]

Predication is also used to explain the indeterminacy of mass terms. [30] When mass terms are treated as predicates, indeterminacy is demonstrated when the terms are applied to combination of quantities by being portions of such combinations as well as to quantities that are qualified in other ways. [30]

In the Pauline theology, the apostle Paul employed predication to explain the qualities of God. [31] He maintained, for instance, that "form" is a predication of God and it also serves as a predication of "Christ Jesus". [32] Paul argued that God has a form and Jesus exists in this form. [32]

Related Research Articles

In ontology, the theory of categories concerns itself with the categories of being: the highest genera or kinds of entities according to Amie Thomasson. To investigate the categories of being, or simply categories, is to determine the most fundamental and the broadest classes of entities. A distinction between such categories, in making the categories or applying them, is called an ontological distinction. Various systems of categories have been proposed, they often include categories for substances, properties, relations, states of affairs or events. A representative question within the theory of categories might articulate itself, for example, in a query like, "Are universals prior to particulars?"

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Existence</span> State of being real

Existence is the state of being real or participating in reality. The terms "being", "reality", and "actuality" are often used as close synonyms. Existence contrasts with nonexistence, nothingness, and nonbeing. A common distinction is between the existence of an entity and its essence, which refers to the entity's nature or essential qualities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metaphysics</span> Branch of philosophy dealing with reality

Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality. This includes the first principles of: being or existence, identity, change, space and time, cause and effect, necessity, actuality, and possibility.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nominalism</span> Philosophy emphasizing names and labels

In metaphysics, nominalism is the view that universals and abstract objects do not actually exist other than being merely names or labels. There are at least two main versions of nominalism. One version denies the existence of universals – things that can be instantiated or exemplified by many particular things. The other version specifically denies the existence of abstract objects – objects that do not exist in space and time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ontology</span> Philosophical study of being and existence

In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being. It investigates what types of entities exist, how they are grouped into categories, and how they are related to one another on the most fundamental level. Ontologists often try to determine what the categories or highest kinds are and how they form a system of categories that encompasses the classification of all entities. Commonly proposed categories include substances, properties, relations, states of affairs, and events. These categories are characterized by fundamental ontological concepts, including particularity and universality, abstractness and concreteness, or possibility and necessity. Of special interest is the concept of ontological dependence, which determines whether the entities of a category exist on the most fundamental level. Disagreements within ontology are often about whether entities belonging to a certain category exist and, if so, how they are related to other entities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Problem of universals</span> Philosophical question of whether properties exist and, if so, what they are

The problem of universals is an ancient question from metaphysics that has inspired a range of philosophical topics and disputes: "Should the properties an object has in common with other objects, such as color and shape, be considered to exist beyond those objects? And if a property exists separately from objects, what is the nature of that existence?"

Substance theory, or substance–attribute theory, is an ontological theory positing that objects are constituted each by a substance and properties borne by the substance but distinct from it. In this role, a substance can be referred to as a substratum or a thing-in-itself. Substances are particulars that are ontologically independent: they are able to exist all by themselves. Another defining feature often attributed to substances is their ability to undergo changes. Changes involve something existing before, during and after the change. They can be described in terms of a persisting substance gaining or losing properties. Attributes or properties, on the other hand, are entities that can be exemplified by substances. Properties characterize their bearers; they express what their bearer is like.

In metaphysics, a universal is what particular things have in common, namely characteristics or qualities. In other words, universals are repeatable or recurrent entities that can be instantiated or exemplified by many particular things. For example, suppose there are two chairs in a room, each of which is green. These two chairs share the quality of "chairness", as well as greenness or the quality of being green; in other words, they share two "universals". There are three major kinds of qualities or characteristics: types or kinds, properties, and relations. These are all different types of universals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gottlob Frege</span> German philosopher, logician, and mathematician (1848–1925)

Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege was a German philosopher, logician, and mathematician. He was a mathematics professor at the University of Jena, and is understood by many to be the father of analytic philosophy, concentrating on the philosophy of language, logic, and mathematics. Though he was largely ignored during his lifetime, Giuseppe Peano (1858–1932), Bertrand Russell (1872–1970), and, to some extent, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) introduced his work to later generations of philosophers. Frege is widely considered to be the greatest logician since Aristotle, and one of the most profound philosophers of mathematics ever.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of logic</span>

The history of logic deals with the study of the development of the science of valid inference (logic). Formal logics developed in ancient times in India, China, and Greece. Greek methods, particularly Aristotelian logic as found in the Organon, found wide application and acceptance in Western science and mathematics for millennia. The Stoics, especially Chrysippus, began the development of predicate logic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Analytic philosophy</span> 20th-century tradition of Western philosophy

Analytic philosophy is a branch and tradition of philosophy using analysis, popular in the Western world and particularly the Anglosphere, which began around the turn of the 20th century in the contemporary era in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Scandinavia, and continues today. Analytic philosophy is often contrasted with continental philosophy, coined as a catch-all term for other methods, prominent in Europe.

Hylomorphism is a philosophical doctrine developed by the Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, which conceives every physical entity or being (ousia) as a compound of matter (potency) and immaterial form (act), with the generic form as immanently real within the individual. The word is a 19th-century term formed from the Greek words ὕλη and μορφή. Hylomorphic theories of physical entities have been undergoing a revival in contemporary philosophy.

In logic and formal semantics, term logic, also known as traditional logic, syllogistic logic or Aristotelian logic, is a loose name for an approach to formal logic that began with Aristotle and was developed further in ancient history mostly by his followers, the Peripatetics. It was revived after the third century CE by Porphyry's Isagoge.

In metaphysics, the distinction between abstract and concrete refers to a divide between two types of entities. Many philosophers hold that this difference has fundamental metaphysical significance. Examples of concrete objects include plants, human beings and planets while things like numbers, sets and propositions are abstract objects. There is no general consensus as to what the characteristic marks of concreteness and abstractness are. Popular suggestions include defining the distinction in terms of the difference between (1) existence inside or outside space-time, (2) having causes and effects or not, (3) having contingent or necessary existence, (4) being particular or universal and (5) belonging to either the physical or the mental realm or to neither. Despite this diversity of views, there is broad agreement concerning most objects as to whether they are abstract or concrete. So under most interpretations, all these views would agree that, for example, plants are concrete objects while numbers are abstract objects.

An accident, in metaphysics and philosophy, is a property that the entity or substance has contingently, without which the substance can still retain its identity. An accident does not affect its essence. It does not mean an "accident" as used in common speech, a chance incident, normally harmful. Examples of accidents are color, taste, movement, and stagnation. Accident is contrasted with essence: a designation for the property or set of properties that make an entity or substance what it fundamentally is, and which it has by necessity, and without which it loses its identity.

Philosophical realism – usually not treated as a position of its own but as a stance towards other subject matters – is the view that a certain kind of thing has mind-independent existence, i.e. that it exists even in the absence of any mind perceiving it or that its existence is not just a mere appearance in the eye of the beholder. This includes a number of positions within epistemology and metaphysics which express that a given thing instead exists independently of knowledge, thought, or understanding. This can apply to items such as the physical world, the past and future, other minds, and the self, though may also apply less directly to things such as universals, mathematical truths, moral truths, and thought itself. However, realism may also include various positions which instead reject metaphysical treatments of reality entirely.

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The argument from degrees, also known as the degrees of perfection argument or the henological argument is an argument for the existence of God first proposed by mediaeval Roman Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas as one of the five ways to philosophically argue in favour of God's existence in his Summa Theologica. It is based on ontological and theological notions of perfection. Contemporary Thomist scholars are often in disagreement on the metaphysical justification for this proof. According to Edward Feser, the metaphysics involved in the argument has more to do with Aristotle than Plato; hence, while the argument presupposes realism about universals and abstract objects, it would be more accurate to say Aquinas is thinking of Aristotelian realism and not Platonic realism per se.

Sortal is a concept used by some philosophers in discussing issues of identity, persistence, and change. Sortal terms are considered a species of general term that are classified within the grammatical category of common or count nouns or count noun phrases. This is based on the claim that a perceptual link allows perceptual demonstrative thought if it enables sortal classification.

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  31. ↑ Breton, Stanislas (2011). A Radical Philosophy of Saint Paul. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 977. ISBN   978-0-231-15104-7.
  32. 1 2 Lenski, R. C. H. (2008). The Interpretation of St. Paul's Epistles to the Ephesians and Philippians. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress. p. 775. ISBN   9780806680828.
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