For the Japanese anime episode, see Differentia (Eureka Seven episode). This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Differentia" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) | In scholastic logic, differentia is one of the predicables. It is that part of a definition which is predicable in a given genus only of the definiendum; or the corresponding "metaphysical part" of the object. ## Contents * 1 Origin * 2 Logical meaning * 3 Ontological meaning * 4 See also ## Origin[edit] Plato implicitly employed the concept of differentia when he conceived his method of diairesis. Aristotle was the first to use the term diaphora (διαφορά) in a systematic fashion; but he had no explicit theory about it, and his understanding of the term is controversial. A theory was only provided by Porphyry's explicit treatment of the predicables presented in his Isagoge. The elaborate scholastic theory of the predicables evolved οn the basis of Boethius' translation of the Isagoge, where the Greek term diaphora was rendered in Latin as "differentia". In ancient Greek adiaphora \- is the negation of diaphora \- is an important term in Hellenistic philosophy. However, only in Pyrrhonism does it appear to be a denial of Aristotle's notion of diaphora. ## Logical meaning[edit] In the original, logical sense, a differentia is a concept — the notion of "differentia" is a second-order concept, or a "second intention", in the scholastic nomenclature. In the scholastic theory it is a kind of essential predicate — a predicate that belongs to its subjects de re necessarily. It is distinguished against the species by expressing the (specific) essence of the object only partially and against the genus by expressing the determining rather than the determined part of the essence. ## Ontological meaning[edit] Although the primary meaning of "differentia" is logical or second-order, it may under certain assumptions have an ontological, first-order application. If it is assumed that the structuring of an essence into "determining" and "determinable" metaphysical parts (which corresponding to a differentia and a genus respectively) exists in reality independently of its being conceived, one can apply the notion "differentia" also to the determining metaphysical part itself, and not just to the concept that expresses it. This is common in Scotism, where the metaphysical parts are said to be formally distinct. If, on the other hand, any mind-independent structuring on the part of the essence is denied (like in Thomism or Suárezianism), then the partitioning of the essence into a generic and a differentiating part must be considered as merely "conceptua", whereas the actual realities corresponding to the differentia and to the genus evade as really the same. These assumptions therefore do not permit any ontological application of the notion of differentia. ## See also[edit] * Genus (philosophy) * The Five Predicables * v * t * e Catholic philosophy Ethics| * Cardinal virtues * Divine command * Just price * Just war * Probabilism * Natural law * Personalism * Seven virtues * Social teaching * Theological virtues * Virtue ethics Schools| | Medieval| * Augustinianism * Scholasticism * Thomism * Scotism * Occamism | Modern| * Salamanca * Christian humanism * Cartesianism * Molinism * Neo-scholasticism * Analytical Thomism Universals| * Augustinian realism * Nominalism * Conceptualism * Moderate realism * Scotistic realism Other| * Theological intellectualism * Theological voluntarism * Foundationalism Philosophers| * Clement * Augustine * Boethius * Dionysius * Isidore * Eriugena * Alcuin * Anselm * Abelard * Lombard * Albertus * Bonaventure * Aquinas * Llull * Scotus * Occam * Ficino * Pico * Erasmus * Cusa * Luis * More * Suárez * Descartes * Gassendi * Montaigne * Pascal * Krasicki * Kołłątaj * Staszic * Newman * Scheler * Chesterton * Maritain * Stein * Mortimer * Rahner * Anscombe * MacIntyre * Wojtyła * Ratzinger * Malebranche Concepts| * Actus Essendi * Actus primus * Actus purus * Aevum * Augustinian values * Cardinal virtues * Cartesian dualism * Cogito, ergo sum * Dehellenization * Differentia * Disputation * Divine illumination * Double truth * Evil demon * Formal distinction * Guardian angel * Haecceity * Head of a pin * Homo unius libri * Infused righteousness * Memento mori * Occam's razor * Ontological argument * Pascal's wager * Peripatetic axiom * Principle of double effect * Quiddity * Quinque viae * Ressentiment * Rota Fortunae * Seven deadly sins * Stratification of emotional life * Theodicy * Augustinian * Irenaean * Trademark argument * Univocity * Utopia Related| * Catholic theology * Platonism * Aristotelianism * Neoplatonism * Islamic philosophy * Doctor of the Church * Renaissance * Rationalism * Empiricism * Phenomenology * Catholicism portal * Philosophy portal *[v]: View this template *[t]: Discuss this template *[e]: Edit this template