dies his own death individually, though similarly to other men; and that
we are thinking neither of ideas nor of reality; but of all existent
individual men being individually but similarly determined. A universal
is indeed one whole; but it is one whole of many similars, which are not
the same with one another. This is indeed the very essence of
distribution, that a universal is predicable, not singly or
collectively, but severally and similarly of each and every individual
of a kind, or total of similar individuals. So also the essence of a
universal judgment is that every individual of the kind is severally but
similarly determined. Finally, a universal judgment is often
existential; but whether it is so or not it remains categorical, so long
as it introduces no hypothetical antecedent about the existence of the
thing signified by the subject. It is true that even in universal
judgments of existence there is often a hypothetical element; for
example, "All men are mortal" contains a doubt whether every man
whatever, whenever and wherever existing, must die. But this is only a
doubt whether all the things signified by the subject are similarly
determined as signified by the predicate, and not a doubt whether there
are such things at all. Hence the hypothetical element is not a
hypothetical antecedent "If anything is a man," but an uncertain
conclusion that "All existing men are mortal." In other words, a
categorical universal is often problematic, but a problematic is not the
same as a hypothetical judgment.
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