SUPPOSITION OF TERMS

Supposition is the property by which a term stands for a definite one of the various things it can
stand for (Bacchuber, 1957, p.230). A term can stand as a material image, as a subject or predicate of a
sentence, as something pertaining a reality, or as pertaining to something or someone in reality.
Consider these examples:
1. Chair has five letters.
2. Chair is an absolute concept.
3. Chair is a furniture.
4. A chair is used to block the pathway.

In Example 1, “chair” stands as a material image, the word itself. In Example 2, “chair” stands for
an essence or whatness that exists only in the mind; that is because the whatness of “chair” in this
example cannot be “absolute concept” except only in the mind. In Example 3, “chair” stands for it real
essence or whatness because it tells us what the chair really is. It must be noted that in this example the
supposition of “chair” does not actually imply an actual existence of a chair.[1] In Example 4, however,
“chair” stands for an actually existing chair. Yet in all four examples, “chair” has exactly the same
meaning, signification, and definition; that is, the examples do not indicate equivocal meanings of the
term “chair”.
Shift in suppositions of terms in reasoning will lead us into error. Thus, to avoid this kind of
error, it is important to be able to identify the supposition of a particular term in a particular statement.
Consider this invalid argument:
Philosophy means love of wisdom. Existentialism is a philosophy. Hence, existentialism means love of
wisdom.
One who does not know anything about supposition will readily claim that this argument is valid.
However, deeper analysis will show that this argument is invalid. We will explain why this is so after we
discussed the kinds of supposition.

KINDS OF SUPPOSITION

A. Material Supposition
It is the use of a term for the spoken or written sign itself, but not for what it signifies (Bacchuber,
1957, p.231). In the following examples, the supposition of “chair” is material: “Chair rhymes with hair,”
and “Chair has R as its last letter”. In all these usages, chair is really a furniture, but the fact that chair’s
being a furniture has nothing to do with the fact chair rhymes with hair, or that its last letter is R. Hence,
in these examples we only consider the material make-up of the word “chair”.

B. Formal Supposition
Formal supposition is the use of a term not for the sign itself, but for what it signifies. In the
example “Chair is a furniture”, chair has a formal supposition because it is not the word chair that is a
furniture but what the chair signifies that is a furniture.

Types of Formal Supposition

1. Logical Supposition
It is the use of a term for what it signifies not as it exists in the real order but as it exists only in
the mind. For example, “chair” can signify as concept, as a subject of a sentence, as inferior to the term
“furniture”, etc., but in all of these significations, “chair” does not refer to the chair in the real order but to
the chair that is a product of mental construct.
Other examples:
 Man is an absolute concept.
Elephant is the subject of the sentence “No elephants are pink”.
Monkey is inferior to the term mammal.

2. Real Supposition
It is the use of a term for what it signifies in the real order. The supposition of chair is real in the
sentence, “The chair is used to block the pathway” because it refers to something in the real order.
Other examples:
Man is a rational animal.
Elephant is a mammal with long proboscis.
This monkey is a primate.
Real supposition is on one hand, either absolute or personal, and on the other hand, either
essential or accidental.

Types of Real Supposition

a. Absolute and Personal

A real supposition is absolute if it is used to refer to the whatness or essence as such and not to
something or someone that bears this whatness or essence. For example, in the sentence “Man is
rational”, man refers not to anyone but to the essence of man as such.

Other examples:
Elephant is a mammal with long proboscis.
Chair is a furniture designed as a single seat.
Kindness is the highest virtue.
A real supposition is personal if it is used to refer not to the whatness or essence as such but to
something or someone that bears this whatness or essence. In the sentence “The man is rational”, man
refers to someone who has the essence of “man”; hence, it is personal.
Other examples:
The elephant I saw yesterday has a very long proboscis.
A chair is used to block the pathway.
These persons are innocent.
It is very important to note that statements using terms with absolute supposition do not assert the
actual existence of the terms’ signified objects. For example, the sentence “Superman is a superhero”
does not imply the existence of Superman in reality. This is not true, however, in statements using terms
with personal supposition. For example, the statement “Superman saved Mary Jane” implies the existence
of Superman in the actual order.

b. Essential and Accidental

A real supposition is essential if the term is predicated of essential attributes, i.e., attributes that
make a thing or a substance what it is. In the sentence “Man is rational”, man has an essential supposition
because rational is an essential attribute that makes man as man.
Other examples:
The elephant is a mammal with long proboscis.
Chair is a furniture.
All men are mortals.
A real supposition is accidental is the term is predicated of accidental attributes, i.e., attributes
that do not make a thing or substance what it is. In the sentence, “A man took his seat”, man has an
accidental supposition because taking a seat is not what makes man as man.
Other examples:
 Elephants can be used in circuses.
The man has a dirty face.
Birds migrate from one continent to another.

PREDICAMENTS AND PREDICABLES

Predicaments
THE TEN PREDICAMENTS
The first predicament is that of Substance. The other nine predicaments are classifications of the
so-called metaphysical accidents, which are non-essential modification of the substance.

1. SUBSTANCE – is a being that exists by or for itself and does not need any other subject in order to
exist.
Ex. Man; house. It answers the question “who or what is this thing?”
ACCIDENTS – is anything that cannot exist by itself and must be attached to a substance. The
following as the accidents:
2. Quantity – an accident which determines the spatial extension of a thing in the form of magnitude or
multitude.
Ex. The pole is 10 feet long. It answers the question “how much or how big?”
3. Quality – is an accident which specifies or characterizes a thing.
Ex. Intelligent; brave. It answers the question “what sort of a thing it is?”
4. Relation – is an accident which logically or really connects one thing with another.
Ex. Fatherhood; taller than. It answers the question “to what or to whom does it refer to?”
5. Action – is the motion of the substance commonly inducing a result on doing something in another
time.
Ex. Painting; running. It answers the question “what hr is doing?”
6. Passion – is the reception of an effect from another. Sometimes, it is called reaction. Ex. Being heated;
being killed.
It answers the question “what does it do to another?”
7. Time – is an accident that measure the duration of mobile beings.
Ex. Yesterday; at 8:30 am. It answer questions, “when?”
8. Place – is an accident that determines the location.
Ex, in Calbayog; in the air. It answer the question, “where?”
9. Posture -– is an accident which tells the position of part of the body.
Ex. Standing; to sit down.
10. Habit – is an accident signifying the coverings of the things that are placed around the body.
Ex. Clothed; armed. It answers the question “how surrounded, equipped or conditions?”

THE PREDICABLES

The predicables are the different kinds of logical universals, that is, universal concepts that may
applied to many subjects. Taken as classifications, they are universal concepts bearing different kinds of
logical relationship to the subject.

1. Genus – a universal term that expresses the essential feature which a things has in common with other
species; e.g., man is an animal. The predicate animal is the genus or generic feature which man shares
with the brutes.
2. Specific Difference – a universal tern that expresses the essential feature which distinguishes the
essence of the subject from the essence of other things with which the subject shares the same genus; e.g.,
man is a rational being. Rationality is the essential feature which distinguishes the essence or nature of
man from that of brutes.
3. Species – a universal term that expresses the whole essence or nature of the subject. It embodies both
the genus and the specific difference as constituent or essential features of the subject; e.g., man is a
RATIONAL – ANIMAL.

4. Property – a universal term that expresses a feature that does not form part of the essence of the
subject, but necessarily derives from its essence in an exclusive and distinctive manner; e.g., man is a
being capable of education, of wonderment, of religious sentiment, etc.

Logically considered, property is not any attribute that derives from or goes with the nature of
man, e.g. three – fold dimension, mortality, etc.; but only a feature that is exclusive of the essential nature
of man and hence derives primarily from his specific constituent feature (specific difference).

5. Accident – a universal term that expresses a feature which is not part of the essence of the subject, not
necessarily connected with it, but is found in the subject only in an accessional or contingent manner; e.g.,
Pedro is healthy, handsome or virtuous. Contingent means that the feature may be present or may be
absent from the subject.