20 EDWARD D. SIMMONS 



self-evident propositions is at least as difficult as the search 

 for definitions. Cajetan suggests that it is more difficult than 

 this. At the end of his Cornmentary on the Posterior Analytics 

 he discusses the induction of the per se nota proposition. He 

 contends that induction is necessary, not only as the source of 

 the incomplex terms of the complex principles, but that it is 

 necessary as well for the composition of these terms in the 

 proposition. He argues that we would not know that equals 

 taken from equals leave equals if we knew only the meaning 

 of " equal," " to be taken from " and " to leave." For this 

 reason he holds that for the genesis of this self-evident proposi- 

 tion there must be induction, not only of the meanings of the 

 terms, but even of their conjunction in this proposition. In some 

 texts at least, as we have seen, St. Thomas indicates that the 

 induction of the terms is sufficient for the intellectual grasp of 

 first principles. Appeal to personal experience, after the sug- 

 gestion of Cajetan, seems to indicate that sometimes the induc- 

 tion of the terms alone suffices (as, for example, with the self- 

 evident proposition Every man is a rational animal) , and that 

 sometimes more is required (as in the example cited by 

 Cajetan) . 



The self-evident proposition is not simply a report on a 

 factual situation. Yet it is not a priori, and it does have an 

 empirical reference. If it were not the case that some things 

 happen to be such and such precisely because they cannot be 

 and not be such and such, we would never grasp the self-evident 

 proposition. It is only through sufficient contact with the 

 things in question that an insight into the necessity which 

 dictates the facts (that is, the way in which these things are) 

 is achieved. ^^ It is true that we can be sure that the whole is 

 greater than any of its parts even though we are not presently 

 confronted by a concrete whole and its parts. The truth of 

 this proposition is guaranteed by the very meanings of whole 



'"There is no intention here to suggest that all facts are necessitated. I refer 

 simply to the necessity that belongs to those facts which are necessary (e. g., that 

 this whole is greater than its parts) . 



