Banzelao Teixeira asked a question about relations: "Would you be explain to me the difference between relatio secundum esse and relatio secundum dici????"
My reply:
not sure of the Latin.
literally, it seems to translate: "relation according to being", and "relation according to saying."
perhaps it is a way of talking about "real relation" and "notional relation" or perhaps "logical relation."
i think you should try asking JD...
Here's Lonergan, Insight, p. 514 of the
CWL 3 edition:
in any pair of correlatives, we can
distinguish between a relation, its base, its term, and the converse relation,
base, and term.
E.g. the relation 'father' has Abraham
as its base, and Isaac as its term.
the converse relation 'son' has Isaac as
converse base, and Abraham as converse term.
relations may be notional, problematic,
real or mixed.
they are notional if they are merely
supposed, merely objects of thought.
they are problematic if their
affirmation occurs in a description or in a provisional explanation.
they are real if their affirmation would
survive in a definitive explanatory account of the universe.
they are mixed if one correlative is
real, and the other is notional.
The correlatives Ivo and Amish.
relation uncle has Ivo as base and Amish
as term
converse relation nephew has Amish as
converse base and Ivo as converse term.
Is the father-son relation the same as
the uncle-nephew relation?
Or better: is uncle-nephew notional,
problematic, real or mixed?
Going by the above, it would appear that
uncle-nephew is real, as real as father-son; since the reality or lack of it
depends not on causality but on the reality of the terms. In other words, it is
not only efficient causal relations (father-son) that are real. There are many
other types of real relations. Father-son would be a relationship of efficient
causality (efficient cause – effect). Uncle-nephew would not be a relationship
of efficient causality, or at least not directly so.
Internal and external relations. (517)
Internal: when the concept of the
relation is intrinsic to the concept of its base.
External: when the base remains
essentially the same whether or not the relation accrues to it.
Both internal and external relations
survive in a definitive explanatory account of the universe. (518)
