Differentia
Encyclopedia
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.
Scholasticism
Scholasticism is a method of critical thought which dominated teaching by the academics of medieval universities in Europe from about 1100–1500, and a program of employing that method in articulating and defending orthodoxy in an increasingly pluralistic context...
logic
Logic
In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...
, differentia is one of the predicables
Predicables
Predicables is, in scholastic logic, a term applied to a classification of the possible relations in which a predicate may stand to its subject. It is not to be confused with 'praedicamenta', the schoolmen's term for Aristotle's ten Categories...
. It is that part of a definition
Definition
A definition is a passage that explains the meaning of a term , or a type of thing. The term to be defined is the definiendum. A term may have many different senses or meanings...
which is predicable in a given genus
Genus (philosophy)
In Scholastic logic a Genus is one of the Predicables. Genus is that part of a definition which is also predicable of other things different from the definiendum. A triangle is a rectilineal figure; i.e. in fixing the genus of a thing, we subsume it under a higher universal, of which it is a...
only of the definiendum.