Disputatio:Metaphysica

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E Vicipaedia

Neander, do you have a latin source for this expresiion? It makes sense using the english preposition qua but to date I have not been able to find a latin source...--Rafaelgarcia 03:06, 19 Aprilis 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I believe ens qua ens is a standard (and literal) translation of Aristotle's τὸ ὂν ᾗ τὸ ὄν. While I don't have a source at hand right now, I'd guess it's to be found in scholastic texts. --Neander 03:56, 19 Aprilis 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. I just have trouble understanding how the expression "works" in latin, since I have not previously encountered "qua" being used as a preposition in latin. Substituting the meaning of the relative pronoun gets me very little:"being whereby being". It would appear, then, that "x qua x", as a technical mode of expression originating in scholastic translation of Aristotle's greek, maybe is not to be taken quite so literally word for word in latin.--Rafaelgarcia 10:35, 19 Aprilis 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Ens qua ens looks like being an elliptic clause, to the effect of ens, qua (condicione) ens (est), "ens quomodo ens est", "ens in se". In Latin, qua is absolutely not to be taken as a preposition, though we can see here the origin of the English (pseudo)preposition qua. --Neander 14:42, 19 Aprilis 2008 (UTC)[reply]