memory and inference. Again, in a primary judgment existence need not be
expressed; but if expressed, it may be expressed either by the
predicate, e.g. "I exist," or by the subject, e.g. "I who exist think."
There are indeed differences between primary judgments, in that the
sensory is a belief in present, the memorial in past, and the
inferential in present, past and future existence. But these differences
in detail do not alter the main point that all these are beliefs in the
existing, in the real as opposed to the ideal, in actual things which
are not ideas. In short, a primary judgment is a belief in something
existing apart from our idea of it; and not because we have an idea of
it, or by comparing an idea with, or referring an idea to, reality; but
because we have a sensation of it, or a memory of it or an inference of
it. Sensation, not conception, is the origin of judgment.
2. _Different Significations of Being in different Kinds of
Judgment._--As Aristotle remarked both in the _De Interpretatione_ and
in the _Sophistici Elenchi_, "not-being is thinkable" does not mean
"not-being exists." In the latter treatise he added that it is a
_fallacia a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter_ to argue from the
former to the latter; "for," as he says, "it is not the same thing to be
something and to exist absolutely." Without realizing their debt to
tradition, Herbart, Mill and recently Sigwart, have repeated Aristotle's
separation of the copula from the verb of existence, as if it were a
modern discovery that "is" is not the same as "exists." It may be added
that they do not quite realize what the copula exactly signifies: it
does not signify existence, but it does signify a fact, namely, that
something is (or is not) determined, either absolutely in a categorical
judgment, or conditionally in a conditional judgment. Now we have seen
that all primary judgments signify more than this fact; they are also
beliefs in the existence of the thing signified by the subject. But, in
the first place, primary judgments signify this existence never by the
copula, but sometimes by the predicate, and sometimes by the subject;
and, secondly, it does not follow that all judgments whatever signify
existence. Besides inference of existence there is inference of
non-existence, of things inconsistent with the objects of primary
judgments. Hence secondary judgments, which no longer contain a belief
that the thing exists, e.g. the judgment, "not-being is thinkable,"
cited by Aristotle; the judgment, "A square circle is impossible," cited
by Herbart; the judgment, "A centaur is a fiction of the poets," cited
by Mill. These secondary judgments of non-existence are partly like and
partly unlike primary judgments of existence. They resemble them in that
they are beliefs in being signified by the copula. They are beliefs in
things of a sort; for, after all, ideas and names are things; their
objects, even though non-existent, are at all events things conceivable
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account