DIVISION. - PHILOSOPHY. - It is the logical operation by which a whole is resolved into its parts. While definition aims at clarifying the content of a concept, division tends toward determining 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 into its operative principles; logical, if its object is the universal concept or term, e.g., the division of substance into material and spiritual. Logical division can be based on a difference that is essential or merely accidental to 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 called accidental or extrinsic (e.g., the division of bodies into light and heavy).
Division, an analytic moment in the acquisition of knowledge, responds to an intrinsic requirement of the structure of the human mind, and has an undoubted positive value in science, when it is conducted with order, exactness, measure and rigorous conceptual determination, both of the foundation and of the respective members of the division.
Bibliography7 worksAristotle, Anal. pr., I, 31, 46 a 31; Anal. post., II, 13, 96 b 15; Top. VI, 6, 143 a 36; Cicero, Topica, 5, 7, 8; G. Hegel, Scienza della l
BIBL.: Aristotle, Anal. pr., I, 31, 46 a 31; Anal. post., II, 13, 96 b 15; Top. VI, 6, 143 a 36; Cicero, Topica, 5, 7, 8; G. Hegel, Scienza della logica, III, Italian trans. by A. Moni, Bari 1925, pp. 305-12; Aristotle, Principi di logica, edited by A. Carlini, Bari 1940, pp. 11-18; U. Viglino, Logica, Rome 1941, pp. 182-88.
Ugo Viglino
LAW
In law, "division" refers to the decomposition of a thing or of a patrimonial mass into several parts (generally in order to assign them to the various entitled parties), or else the partition of a territorial district into several others of the same kind as the original (v. CIRCOSCRIZIONI ECCLESIASTICHE), or finally the establishment of two or more entities out of one, which is thereby extinguished (in canon law the most notable example of this last case is found in the division of a benefice).
Viglino, Ugo. “Divisione.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IV, col. 1773. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950. https://azioneromana.com/article/divisione.
MLA
Viglino, Ugo. “Divisione.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IV, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950, col. 1773. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/divisione.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec4_divisione,
author = {Viglino, Ugo},
title = {Divisione},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {IV},
pages = {1773},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1950},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/divisione}
}
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