CLASSIFICATION OF IDEAS

GROUNDS FOR QUALIFICATION

Ideas may be classified according to the objects they express. They may also be
classified according to other considerations like perfection, origin or formation and relation.

ACCORDING TO COMPREHENSION
Ideas are:
a. Simple – which express only one conceptual element or features, e.g. existence,
perfection, unity.

Compound – which express several conceptual elements of features, e. g. rational-

animal, white man, philosopher. Observe that even if man is simple as regards to
term, the idea expressed whether as rational-animal, or as an individual having a
human nature is compound.

b. One – expressing only one nature, although it may comprise several constituent or
essential features: e. g. man, plant. In the artificial order a car, an airplane, a
house, each express only one artificial nature

Multiple – expressing several natures; e. g. philosopher, i.e. man and

philosophical science.

c. Concrete – expressing a subject as qualified by a nature, quality or formal feature;

e. g. man, a physician, something white. Distinguish this logical concrete from the
physical concrete, which is a material thing that can be weighed and measured.

Abstract – expressing only a nature, quality or formal reason without a subject; e.

g. nationality, virtue, science, democracy.

d. Absolute – expressing only a nature or an object with no reference to another

nature or thing, e.g. organism, dog, tree, personality.

Relative – expressing an object or nature with reference to another object or

subject; e. g. headmaster, shepherd, father, motherhood, husband, female.

ACCORDING TO EXTENSION
Ideas are:
a. Singular – expressing a conceptual feature or a combination of conceptual
features that is applicable to only one individual, e.g. the actual pope, the
discoverer of universal gravitation, the author of don Quijote, the liberator of the
Philippines.

Universal – expressing a conceptual feature or nature that may be applied

distributively to all the individuals of the same category, e.g. students, Filipino,
priest, cat.

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 Transcendental – expressing a conceptual feature of nature that applies
distributively to individuals of different kinds of categories. It is transcendental
ideas because it surpasses the bounds of species and genera, e.g. being,
individual, subject, something, good, excellent.

Particular – expressing only a part of the extension of a universal, or

transcendental concept, e.g. most women, a few boys, some beings.

Collective – expressing a group as such of individual, e.g. army, family, nation. A

collective concept may be singular, universal or particular, e.g. the family of Mr
Brown, every family, Filipino families.

b. Univocal or homologous – expressing a conceptual feature or a nature that may be

found in many individuals distributively in the same sense, e.g. Filipino, human
being, girl.

Analogous – expressing a conceptual feature or nature that is found in many

individuals in similar although not exactly the same sense, e.g. good, excellent,
principle. An excellent pair of shoes is not excellent in exactly the same sense as
an excellent teacher, but only in similar manner. A good apple-pie is not exactly
the same as a good mother. Causes are principles, so also are norms of life.

ACCORDING TO PERFECTION
Ideas are:
a. Clear – expressing the constituent features or conceptual elements of an object
distinctly, e.g. a circle is a closed curved line all of whose points are equidistant
from the center; a microscope is an optical instrument that use a combination of
lenses to produce magnified image of objects too small to be seen by the unaided
eye.

Obscure – expressing only vague or general conceptual features about an object,

e.g. a circle is a kind of plane or geometrical figure, a stethoscope is an instrument
used by doctors. Distinct idea is nothing else but a clear idea; because in the
realm of ideas there are no dimensional features, but only conceptual ones to
distinguish one idea from another. Likewise, vague ideas that do not disclose the
precise features of an object are obscure ideas.

b. Adequate or complete – expressing all the essential, or proper conceptual features

of an object, e.g. man is a rational-animal, a ballpen is a writing instrument
having as writing point a tiny ball that transfer the ink stored in a cartridge to a
writing surface.

Inadequate or incomplete – expressing only part of the essential, or proper

conceptual features of an object, e.g. man is a living organism, a ballpen is an
instrument for writing. In an analogues sense, imprecise ideas are also inadequate
in the sense of imperfect; and precise ideas are adequate in the sense that it
corresponds perfectly with the object.

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ACCORDING TO ORIGIN OR FORMATION
Ideas are:
a. Immediate – ideas directly abstracted from the objects perceived, e.g. the idea of a
woman, of a house, of an automobile. These ideas are also called intuitive; but
this designation should not lead us to think that we have a direct intuition of the
essences of things, or that we do not abstract the said ideas. These ideas are
directly abstracted from our rational contract with, or experience of things.

Mediate – ideas obtained not from the direct perception of the things concerned,
but from other related concepts, e.g. the idea of God as the Universal first cause of
contingent beings, the idea of spirits, of electrons. These ideas are also called
abstractive ideas by distinction from the afore-said intuitive ideas. Immediate
ideas are abstracted directly from their objects; whereas mediate ideas are
abstracted or culled from other ideas.

b. Explicit – ideas expressing conceptual features or formal reasons distinctly in the

forefront of the mind, e.g. sentient organism, the will’s mastery over its acts. These
ideas are also called actual.

Implicit – ideas or conceptual features or formal reasons contained in another

explicit and immediately perceived concept, e.g. the idea of substance in animal,
of capacity for education in man’s rationality, of man’s responsibility in his
mastery over his deliberate and voluntary acts. These ideas are also known as
virtual concepts, by comparison to the actual explicit concepts in which they are
discoverable. An idea may be implicit as:
 A metaphysical presupposition or degree, e.g. substance or
organism in man
 As an essential feature, or as a formal reason, e.g. rationality in
man, or the corruptibility and mortality in man’s organic nature
 As essential constituent or constituents, e.g. an organic sentient
body and a rational soul in man
 As a necessary attribute, e.g. capacity for religious sentiment, or
for shame in man

ACCORDING TO THE OBJECT

Ideas are:
a. Real or objective – expressing an object or something found in the external world
independently from our minds, e.g. light, clouds. Death and darkness are real not
in the sense of objects or things, but in the sense that they are found in the
external world independently from our minds

b. Logical or conceptual – expressing a product of the mind, e.g. phyla, categories,

premises, etc. We take the term logical in the wider sense as denoting something
conceptual, not as related to the science of logic. In this sense the following
express also something conceptual: X2 (mathematical), a priori form of the mind
(ideological), a snake-god (superstitious), intellectual beings in other planets
(theoretical), the super Aryan race (fictitious), etc.

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 c. Imaginary or mythical – expressing a figment of the imagination or of fanciful
stories, e.g. a talking tree, a mermaid, the three-headed infernal dog Cerberus.
The biblical talking-serpent is not an idea, but a metaphorical term. Metaphors
are found among terms, not among ideas.

ACCORDING TO THEIR RELATION

Ideas are:
a. Identical – concepts that formally denote the same thing or object, but differ as
explicit and implicit, e.g. rational-animal and man, female-parent and mother,
supreme being and god. The comprehension is the same. However, taken not
objectively but as formal modification of the mind the explicit idea is not the same
as the implicit idea

Equivalent – ideas that express the same object (extension), although not through
the same conceptual features or formal reasons, e.g. H 20 and water, sodium
chloride and household salt. The chemist and the housewife understand the same
thing, although not through the same formal reasons. These ideas have the same
extension or denotation, but not the same intention or connotation.

b. Pertinent – concepts that are somehow related to each other, e.g. freedom and
responsibility, personhood and rights, man and culture, deity and religion.

Impertinent – concepts that have no relation to each other, e.g. wisdom and
hunger, sculpture and poverty, black man and truck driver.

c. Compatible – concepts that respectively express formal reasons that can coexist in
the same subject, e.g. virtue and wisdom, beauty and intelligence.

Incompatible – concepts that respectively express formal reasons that cannot

coexist in the same subject, e.g. health and sickness, wisdom and foolishness,
black and white on the same spot, monkey and philosopher.

Incompatible concepts may be:

 Contradictory – concepts, one of which expresses a positive conceptual
reason and the other expresses its negation, e.g. living and non-living, white
and non-white. There is no intermediate alternative possible between them.
A man is either living or non-living; he may be dying, but he is still living.

 Contrary – concepts which express conceptual reasons which are opposed

to each other as extremes in a class or category, e.g. clever and stupid,
black and white, wise and ignorant. Between such extremes there are
several intermediates possible; a man may not be white nor black, but
brown; he may be neither clever nor stupid, but just average.

 Privative – concepts one of which expresses a quality or perfection, and the

other is lack, e.g. sight and blindness, speech and dumbness, knowledge
and ignorance of the same thing. Lack or privation proper is not a mere
absence of some feature or perfection, but the absence of a quality or
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 perfection in a subject that is commensurate to have it, or has been
enjoying it, e.g. the absence of life in a stone is not death, but it is so in an
animal or plant organism. Absence of sight in a tree is not blindness but
mere sightlessness; but in a dog it is blindness. Privation may be total or
partial: sickness is not a total privation of health, poverty is not a total
privation of the necessities for life, blindness can be partial.

 Correlatives – concepts that bear mutual relation to each other, so that they
exclude each other from the same subject according to the same relation,
e.g. teacher and pupil, master and servant, employer and employee, father
and son. Thus, a person cannot be father and son of himself; but he can be
father of one, and son of another.

LAWS FOR CONTRADICTORY CONCEPTS

If one is true of something, then the other is necessarily false. Both cannot be
affirmed, or denied at the same time of the same thing. Hence, if one is affirmed, the other
must be denied; and vice versa. E.g. a girl is either beautiful, or not beautiful. She is
beautiful; therefore, she is not non-beautiful. She is non-beautiful; therefore, she is not
beautiful.

LAWS FOR CONTRARY CONCEPTS

Both cannot be true; but can be false. Hence, if one is affirmed, the other must be
denied. But, if one is denied, the other is doubtful: it may be affirmed, or denied. E.g. this
student is bright; therefore, he is not dull. That other student is not dull; therefore, he is
bright? He may, or may not be bright, but average.

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