DIVISION. — Philosophy. — It is the logical operation by which a whole is resolved into its parts. Whereas definition aims at clarifying the content of a concept, division tends to determine its extension.
It is twofold: real, if it refers to an ontological whole, e.g., the division of human nature into its essential parts or operative principles; logical, if its object is the universal concept or term, e.g., the division of substance into material and spiritual. Logical division may be based on an essential or merely accidental difference among the members of the division: in the first case, the division is essential-intrinsic (e.g., the division of bodies into living and non-living); in the second case, the division is termed accidental or extrinsic (e.g., the division of bodies into light and heavy).
Division, an analytical moment in the acquisition of knowledge, responds to an intrinsic exigency of the structure of the human mind, and has an undoubted positive value in science when conducted with order, exactness, measure, and rigorous conceptual determination, both of the foundation and of the respective members of the division.