CP 5: Pragmatism and Pragmaticism

Description

CP 5.320 Fn P1 p 191:> The word *suppositio* is one of the useful technical terms of the middle ages which was condemned by the purists of the *renaissance* as incorrect. The early logicians made a distinction between *significatio* and *suppositio.* [Cf. Prantl, II, 286ff; III, 51f.] *Significatio* is defined as “rei per vocem secundum placitum representatio.” [ *Ibid.,* footnote 199.] It is a mere affair of lexicography, and depends on a special convention ( *secundum placitum* ), and not on a general principle. *Suppositio* belongs, not directly to the *vox,* but to the *vox* as having this or that *significatio.* “Unde significatio prior est suppositione et differunt in hoc, quia significatio est vocis, suppositio vrto est termini jam compositi ex voce et significatione.” [ *Ibid.,* footnote 201.] The various *suppositiones* which may belong to one word with one *significatio* are the different senses in which the word may be taken, according to the general principles of the language or of logic. Thus, the word *table* has different *significationes* in the expressions “table of logarithms” and “writing-table”; but the word *man* has one and the same *significatio,* and only different *suppositiones,* in the following sentences: “A man is an animal,” “a butcher is a man,” “man cooks his food,” “man appeared upon the earth at such a date,” &c. Some later writers have endeavored to make “ *acceptio* ” do service for “ *suppositio* “; but it seems to me better, now that scientific terminology is no longer forbidden, to revive *supposition.* I should add that as the principles of logic and language for the different uses of the different parts of speech are different, *supposition* must be restricted to the acceptation of a *substantive.* The term *copulatio* was used for the acceptation of an adjective or verb.William Wallace, O.P., also discusses *ex suppositione* reasoning in depth, esp. as it relates Aristotle, St. Thomas, Galileo, and modern scientific demonstrative reasoning (cf. Fr. Wallace's article "Albertus Magnus on Suppositional Necessity in the Natural Sciences" in [*Albertus Magnus and the Sciences: Commemorative Essays*](https://isidore.co/calibre/browse/book/4239).St. Vincent Ferrer also wrote a treatise on supposition.* * *Chapter 5: Truth (ref:20.1-20.28)[1902 | Truth and Falsity and Error (§3. Definitons of Truth) | CP 5.570-3](http://www.commens.org/dictionary/term/truth)