معارف منطقی

Predicates not only constitute one of the essential components of a proposition but also play a fundamental role in the inferential process of syllogisms. “Dialectical predicates” (maḥmūlāt jadaliyya), as a type of predicates, is the principal subject of this study. The central question is: “What are the characteristics of dialectical predicates?” Answering this question requires an investigation into how the term “dialectical predicates” emerged in the literature of Islamic logic, and on what basis certain predicates were classified as dialectical. Adopting an analytic-deductive method, this research first traces the historical development of dialectical predicates and then explicates their instances and divisions. This shows that Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) was the first to draw a clear distinction between the predicates discussed in the Book of Dialectic and those in the Isagoge, and he employed the term “dialectical predicates.” In his view, the definitions of concepts such as genus, differentia, property, and species provided by al-Fārābī and earlier logicians all correspond to dialectical predicates. Conversely, whenever the condition that “the property be coextensive with the subject” is not observed in the classification of predicates, the classification will be consistent with that of the Isagoge.