Differentia

The character that distinguishes one species from others within the same genus is called the differentia specifica. ❋ Dino Bigongiari (1997)

For we are still faced with the apparent fact that genus + differentia constitutes a plurality even if the differentia is the last, or “completing,” one. ❋ Cohen, S. Marc (2008)

Popularly this was described by saying that the differentia is the knife that carves a species out of the genus. ❋ Dino Bigongiari (1997)

Likewise you must inquire also if the species or any of the objects that come under it is predicated of the differentia: for this is impossible, seeing that the differentia is a term with a wider range than the various species. ❋ Unknown (2002)

By quality I mean not that which is in the substance (for even the differentia is a quality), but the passive quality, in virtue of which a thing is said to be acted on or to be incapable of being acted on. ❋ Aristotle (2002)

Moreover, if any of the species be predicated of it, the result will be that the differentia is a species: if, for instance, ‘man’ be predicated, the differentia is clearly the human race. ❋ Unknown (2002)

And here, to prevent the notion of differentia from being restricted within too narrow limits, it is necessary to remark, that a species, even as referred to the same genus, will not always have the same differentia, but a different one, according to the principle and purpose which preside over the particular classification. ❋ John Stuart Mill (1839)

This gives the 'differentia' of the Utilitarian considered as one species of the genus 'Radical.' ❋ Leslie Stephen (1868)

Such a system of categories may also play a central role in answering individual questions of nature, providing the most general sort of answer to questions of the form “What is this?”, and providing the basis for definitions of narrower sorts of things by specifying the most general category (genus) under which things of this sort fall, and the differentia that distinguishes them from other things of the same category. ❋ Thomasson, Amie (2009)

I read it in Latin, and it says: the substances, that is human beings or cats are a composition of real components, but the accidence for example the colour white, though can be defined with genus and differentia, has only a mental composition. ❋ Unknown (2009)

If pulp fiction must be defined as a literary genre, Robinson has provided the differentia: a prose narrative of forty or fifty thousand words with plenty of action. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Rather than reject the principle, however, they instead introduced new intrinsic properties, the basic differentia, thereby avoiding the unpalatable consequence. ❋ Ganeri, Jonardon (2009)

Yet every definition requires a genus and a differentia. ❋ Unknown (2009)

The concept of an object cannot be defined in terms of a qualified genus and differentia. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Aristotle's proposal is that “the division should be by the differentia of the differentia” (1038a9). ❋ Cohen, S. Marc (2008)

For example, if one uses the differentia footed to divide the genus animal, one then uses a differentia such as cloven-footed for the next division. ❋ Cohen, S. Marc (2008)

If one divides in this way, Aristotle claims, “clearly the last (or completing, teleutaia) differentia will be the substance of the thing and its definition” (1038a19). ❋ Cohen, S. Marc (2008)

Its matter is its genus, which is only potentially the species defined; its differentia is the form that actualizes the matter. ❋ Cohen, S. Marc (2008)