relative opposition

In my gift-ontology, relative opposition names the way relations of origin can be really distinct from one another without dividing essence. Paternity is opposed to filiation. Active spiration is opposed to the Spirit’s proceeding. These oppositions are not contradictions and not partitions. They are relationally opposed “fromness” profiles within the one simple act. Relative opposition explains how real distinction is possible under simplicity: the persons are not distinguished by different essential contents, but by opposed relations of origin. This term is important because it blocks two common misreadings. It blocks the thought that if essence is one, then all distinctions are merely conceptual. It also blocks the thought that real distinctions must be partitive. Relative opposition gives a third route: real distinction without parts.