IN ANALOGY
1. Intropucrory. The present paper is an attempt, to clear
up some of the problems involved in the traditional theory of
analogy as presented by the Thomistic school. The two main
ideas behind the formal developments offered here are: (1)
analogy is an important discovery, worthy of a thorough
examination and further development, (2) contemporary
mathematical logic supplies excellent tools for such work.
‘This paper is, as far as the author knows, the first of its kinds *
it deals with a difficult subject in a sketchy way; what it con-
tains is, therefore, not meant to be definitive truths, but
rather proposals for discussion.
‘The approach to the problems of analogy used here is the
semantic one. This is not the only method, but it would seem
to be both the most convenient and the most traditional. As a
matter of fact, it is difficult to see how equivocity, which is
and must be treated as a relation of the same type as analogy,
can be considered except by the semantic method. Also, St.
Thomas Aquinas examined analogy in his question concerning
divine names and the title of Cajetan’s classical work is “ De
Nominum Analogia.”
It will be taken for granted that the reader has a good
knowledge of classical texts of St. Thomas and Cajetan, and
of the content of the Principia Mathematica; * no reference
“The author is, however, indebted to the lute Fr. Jan Salamucha and to J. Fr.
Drewnowski who were the frst to apply recent Formal Logie to Thomistie problems.
‘The present paper may be considered as an attempt to formalize some of the
ions expressed by them. Cl. Myil katolicka wobec Logiki wzpétezesne} (Polish
‘he Catholic Thought and Contemporary Logic), Poznan 1987 (with French
abstracts) and J. Fr. Drewnowski, Zerys programu filozofcenego (Polish = A
sketch of # Philosophie Programme), Praeglad Filoaoficany, 87, 1948, $-98, 160-181,
262-202, especially pp. 95-98. (There is a French account of this important work
in Studia Philosophica (Lwow) I, 1085, 461-454.
A. N. Whitehead and B, Russell, Principia Mathematica, ad ed., Cambridge
1925-1987.
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