Why Medieval Philosophy Matters by Stephen Boulter

Author:Stephen Boulter
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781350094185
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK

This is the highest degree of distinction. To illustrate with an uncontroversial example, Peter is essentially distinct from a cabbage because neither has the nature of the other, Peter being a member of Homo sapiens, and cabbages being instances of Brassica oleracea. The other two kinds of real distinction are of greater intrinsic philosophical interest. These leave essences out of the reckoning and employ the principle that nothing can be separated from itself:

• The major real distinction: If A can exist in the real order without B, and B can exist in the real order without A, then there is a major real distinction between A and B. This two-way separation constitutes the kind of distinction we find between, say, two distinct human beings, Peter and Paul.

To this a further real distinction was added the following distinction:

• The minor real distinction: If A can exist in the real order without B, but B ceases to exist in the real order if separated from A, then there is a minor real distinction between A and B. This one-way separation is found between Peter and Peter’s accidental properties such as his height and weight, his hair and eye colour, his spatial location or his actions.

Although weaker than two-way separation, this one-way separation was deemed sufficient to posit a real distinction between A and B because the distinction exists ex natura rei, or a parte rei, that is found in real things prior to any consideration by the mind. Unfortunately this distinction is sometimes referred to as a ‘modal’ distinction; but as Suarez reserves this term for a different distinction I will stick with his suggestion that we call one-way separation a minor real distinction.

It is worth mentioning a complication at this point. While the nature of the minor real distinction is clear enough, there was much debate over instances. It was assumed across the board that the accidents of a substance could not naturally continue to exist if separated from the substance in which they naturally inhere, and so there was at least a minor real distinction between a substance and its accidents. However, it was accepted by all that, by God’s power, accidents could be preserved in the real order when separated from the substance in which they naturally inhere. This was accepted as established by the standard interpretation of the Eucharist, known as transubstantiation, according to which the properties of the host continue to exist although the underlying substance in which it naturally inheres has been altered. This example of God’s omnipotence, insisted upon in the post-1277 environment, encouraged a tendency to consider accidents and properties as ‘things’ in their own right on a par with substances. As a consequence, some posited a major real distinction between a substance and its accidents. But however one takes the theology, allowing one-way separation to constitute a real distinction means that there is at least a minor real distinction between a substance and its properties.

The other kind of distinction widely recognized by the

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