PREDICABLES

Predicables

Or logical universals

are the different modes or ways in which

a universal (used as a predicate term in a

proposition) can be predicated of its

subject.

In the thinking process, predicable

enhances depth of knowledge about

realities

they anchor the thinker’s capacity to

define or describe realities

PREDICABLES

The five predicables are:

Species - refers to the manner in which a universal idea

when used as a predicate of a proposition expresses the

whole essence of its subject

Ex. Man is a rational animal.

Genus - refers to the manner in which a universal idea

when used as a predicate of a proposition expresses a

part of the essence of its subject, that part which the

subject has in common with other species in the same

class

Ex. Gorilla is an animal.

Differentia – when a predicate of the proposition

separates from one thing to another, especially a

trait that distinguishes one subclass to another (one

species from another species in the same genus)

Ex. “Man is rational” and “Brute is irrational”

Property (propium) – the essential trait of a predicate

Ex. Vice Ganda is risible.

Accident – the unessential trait of a predicate

Ex. Michael Jackson is white.

Predicables