The theory of Analogical Gradation in the light of Peripatetic Illumination and Transcendental Metaphysics

Illumination metaphysicians argue that intensity and weakness, perfection and imperfection, increase and decrease observed in some individual cases of quiddity necessitate the “analogical gradation” of quiddity. Their view more concerns the individual cases of accidents like quality and quantity than those of the essence itself. The peripatetic metaphysicians, however, have come to totally deny the “analogical gradation” of quiddity whether accidents or essence. They have given their proofs referring the “analogical gradation” to what is white or black, for example, rather than the very whiteness or blackness. Having realized that the concepts as such cannot be exposed to the “analogical gradation”, they have referred the difference of intensity or weakness, perfection or imperfection of external things to their individual characteristics.