Man in Combination with the Rules

18. With rule B, we ask if we can know more about man through affirmation than through negation. The answer is that we can, because an affirmative statement defines the subject with its naturally connected predicate, as when we say that man is a rational animal. On the other hand, a negatively attributed predicate provides no definite information about the subject, as when we say that a man is not a stone, or that a man is not a plant. Further, a true affirmation always posits something that exists in the subject, whereas a true negation always removes something from it, and even a false negation has a way of removing something from a subject. Moreover, affirmation is prior to negation, as an antecedent is prior to a resultant. Therefore, an affirmation can obviously tell us more about man than a negation can.

19. A man who does not know what a man is must be neglecting his status as a human being. Now let us learn more about human existence by defining man extensively with 30 definitions. Indeed, just one definition is strictly sufficient for defining man by simply saying “a man is the being of his essence”. Nonetheless, we will clarify our understanding by expanding our definitions. Twenty-eight of the following definitions refer to the 18 principles and 10 predicates of this art, and the last two refer to what man does. In every definition, the predicate naturally connects to its subject.

20. What is a man? Let us use the first species of rule C to answer this question.

1. First, we answer by saying that a man is an animal about whom we can predicate more different species of goodness than we can predicate about any other kind of animal.

2. Man is the animal who has a greater variety of species of greatness than any other animal has.

3. Man is the animal who has one incorruptible part.

4. Man is the animal endowed with more powers than any other animal.

5. Man is the animal who produces intelligible species with his organs.

6. Man is the animal who produces lovable species with his organs.

7. Man is the animal who practices the virtues and the vices.

8. Man is the animal who truly uses the liberal and mechanical arts.

9. Man is the animal who enjoys a greater variety of enjoyment than any other animal does.

10. Man is the animal in whom there are more differences than in any other animal. 11. Man is the animal in whom there are more concordant things than in any other animal. 12. Man is the animal in whom there are more oppositions than in any other animal.

13. Man is the animal in whom nature operates with more principles than in any other

animal.

14. Man is the animal through whom all corporeal things serve God.

15. Man is the animal who exists for a purpose greater than that of any other animal. 16. Man is the animal who belongs to the topmost animal species.

17. Man is the animal who contains more equalities than does any other animal. 18. Man is the animal who can become more evil than any other animal.

19. Man is the substance that comprises more things than any other substance does.

20. Man is the substance that contains more different species of quantity than any other

substance does.

21. Man is the substance that has innate spiritual and corporeal qualities.

23. Man is the substance that has innate spiritual and corporeal actions. 24. Man is the substance that has innate spiritual and corporeal passions. 25. Man is the substance that clothes itself with either virtue or vice.

26. Man is the substance that maintains an upright posture in walking and sitting.

27. Man is the substance that has one innate part which is independent of succession in

time.

28. Man is the substance in which the rational soul and the body are located within each

other.

29. Man is a man-producing substance. 30. Man is a being that reproduces its species.

21. With the second species of rule C we ask what man has co-essentially in himself. We answer that man has substance and accidents without which he cannot exist. In addition, he has the innate correlatives of his principles; and he has innate accidentally acquired habits.

22. With the third species, we ask what man is in other things. We say that man is a reproducer of man in a woman, while the woman nourishes the seed, moves it and makes it grow with nourishment supplied from outside. I saw an egg placed under a hen, and there was a hole about the size of a coin in one part of the shell. In the middle of the inner membrane, there was one drop of blood about the size of a grain of millet. From this drop, slender red hairlines came out, disposed like a spider's web, while the drop moved on its own and moved the web as well, just like a spider does in the middle of its web. Moreover, man is habituated in habits, located in places etc.

23. With the fourth species, we ask what man has in other things. We answer that he has science in his habits, shape in his posture, motion in his body and location in space.

24. With the first species of rule D we ask about man’s origin. We answer that his body comes from his earliest ancestors, but his soul does not. For instance, his intellect does not descend from any other intellect, as we already proved above in chapter 9, #5.

25. With the second species of rule D we ask what man consists of. We answer that he consists of his soul and his body. In addition, his soul consists of spiritual principles and his body consists of corporeal principles.

26. With the third species of rule D we ask to whom man belongs. We answer that he belongs to God. Also, some men belong to other men as the slaves of their masters, and a sinful man belongs to the world, the flesh and the devil.

27. With the first species of rule E we ask why man exists. We answer that he exists because he is made of his soul and body, and this conjunction of soul and body necessarily brings him into being.

28. With the second species of rule E we ask why man exists. We answer that man exists in order to understand, remember and love God and receive everlasting blissfulness from him. Man also exists as a medium through whom and with whom all corporeal creatures serve God by serving man. In addition, he exists in order to reproduce his species.

29. With the first species of rule F we ask about man’s continuous quantity. We answer that it is the same as the continuous quantity of his substance.

30. With the second species of rule F we ask about man’s discrete quantity. We answer that it is the same as the quantity of his discrete parts. Then we ask how much good or evil there is in man. We answer that man is as good or evil as his habits are good or evil.

31. With the first species of rule G we ask about man’s proper qualities. We answer that he has qualities of his own without which he cannot exist such as visibility, shape and so forth.

32. With the second species of rule G we ask about man’s appropriated qualities. We say that man is good, great etc.

33. With rule H we ask: when does man exist? We answer that he exists when God creates a rational soul in a body, whereupon the body enters into the human species. He exists now, in the present, not in the past or the future. In addition, man can be known by combining this present "now" with rules C, D and K. We leave this up to subtle and diligent readers for the sake of brevity.

34. With rule I we ask where man exists. We say that man exists in his humanity, outside of which he has no way of existing. In addition, man exists in the space where he is located and contained, as signified by rules C, D and K.

35. With the first rule K we ask about how man exists, and how he expresses his likeness outwardly. In answer to the first question we say that he exists in the way that his parts come together to compose him. To the second question, we answer that man has ways to express his likeness outwardly by procreating and by drawing forth letters and figures from his mind with the motion of his hand and his pen, and so forth.

36. With the second rule K we ask what man exists with. We say that it is by means of his first parents. In addition, he exists with his primordial principles, both essential and accidental, without which he cannot exist. Moreover, he is just with his justice, and a writer with his hand, and so forth.

37. Further, let us ask, with what are the human intellect - as well as the memory and the will - universal and particular? We say that they are universal with the soul's universal principles, like spiritual goodness, greatness etc. And they are universal with its universal correlatives indicated by the second species of rule C. They are particular with the particularities of objects with which they are practical as they produce intelligible species one after the other.