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Single Idea 22144

[filed under theme 9. Objects / F. Identity among Objects / 1. Concept of Identity ]

Full Idea

The Real Essential distinction says if A and B are not of the same natural kind, then they are essentially distinct. This is the highest degree of distinction.

Gist of Idea

Real Essential distinction: A and B are of different natural kinds

Source

report of Francisco Suárez (Disputationes metaphysicae [1597], Bk VII) by Stephen Boulter - Why Medieval Philosophy Matters 4

Book Ref

Boulter,Stephen: 'Why Medieval Philosophy Matters' [Bloomsbury 2019], p.97


A Reaction

Boulter says Peter is essentially distinct from a cabbage, because neither has the nature of the other.


The 18 ideas from Francisco Suárez

Substances are incomplete unless they have modes [Suárez, by Pasnau]
Forms must rule over faculties and accidents, and are the source of action and unity [Suárez]
Partial forms of leaf and fruit are united in the whole form of the tree [Suárez]
The best support for substantial forms is the co-ordinated unity of a natural being [Suárez]
Other things could occupy the same location as an angel [Suárez]
We can get at the essential nature of 'quantity' by knowing bulk and extension [Suárez]
We only know essences through non-essential features, esp. those closest to the essence [Suárez]
There are entities, and then positive 'modes', modifying aspects outside the thing's essence [Suárez]
A mode determines the state and character of a quantity, without adding to it [Suárez]
Identity does not exclude possible or imagined difference [Suárez, by Boulter]
Real Essential distinction: A and B are of different natural kinds [Suárez, by Boulter]
Minor Real distinction: B needs A, but A doesn't need B [Suárez, by Boulter]
Major Real distinction: A and B have independent existences [Suárez, by Boulter]
Conceptual/Mental distinction: one thing can be conceived of in two different ways [Suárez, by Boulter]
Modal distinction: A isn't B or its property, but still needs B [Suárez, by Boulter]
Scholastics assess possibility by what has actually happened in reality [Suárez, by Boulter]
The old 'influx' view of causation says it is a flow of accidental properties from A to B [Suárez, by Jolley]
Only natural kinds and their members have real essences [Suárez, by Cover/O'Leary-Hawthorne]