I was struck yesterday by the characterization of the argument of authority of the Argentinian comrade Furoya when he said that he did not prove per se that something was true and it is true. Per se and its antonym per accidens are Latin phrases meaning respectively by itself, by the very nature of something, and accidentally, not by the nature of something but by other non-essential characteristics. These terms are also widely used in the scholastic philosophy that I also studied in my youth.
