Consequentia

Consequentia is a Latin noun meaning consequence, result, or outcome. The form derives from the participle consequens, following; the term appears in medieval and early modern discussions of logic and rhetoric. In English-language sources, consequentia is typically encountered in translations of Latin logical treatises or in studies of the history of logic.

In logic, consequentia denotes the consequent of a hypothetical or conditional statement; the other part is the antecedent. For example, in the conditional "If it rains, the streets will be wet," the streets will be wet is the consequent.

In broader philosophy and rhetoric, consequentia can refer to a consequence or outcome that follows from a given premise or set of premises. It is used to discuss how one statement or state of affairs entails another, and to distinguish between what follows from what is asserted.

Today, the term is largely of historical interest, with the English word consequence preferred in modern use. Consequentia appears mainly in scholarly writings on the history of logic, scholastic logic, and Latin translations, where it helps illuminate how early logicians framed conditional reasoning and argumentative structure.