II. To the Principal Argument

58. To the argument for the opposite [n.44]:

Although the assumption [sc. ‘that ‘one’ states only privation of division in the thing itself and privation of its identity with something else’] is perhaps false (about which elsewhere [not in the Ordinatio; see Metaphysics 4 q.2 nn.2, 4, 7, 9, 13; 7 q.3 n.17]), yet, if it were true that ‘one’ signified formally that double negation, it does not follow that the double negation does not have some positive cause whereby it is present in a thing - for specific unity would by parity of reason signify double negation, and yet no one would deny that there is a positive entity in the idea of a specific entity, from which positive entity the idea of the specific difference is taken. And this is a good argument for the solution of the question and for the opinion [sc. Scotus’ solution and opinion] because, since in any unity less than numerical unity there is a positive entity given (which is the per se reason for the unity and for its repugnance to the opposed manyness), a positive entity will be most of all - or equally - given in the most perfect unity, which is numerical unity.