Logic as the Science of the Pure ConceptCroce, Benedetto
Philosophy
Logic as the Science of the Pure Concept
Croce, Benedetto
Logic
The distinction between the two forms, the judgment of definition and
the individual judgment, is universally recognized. Not only can it be
found, as has already been noted, in at least one of the significations
which have been attached to the two classes of judgments, analytic and
synthetic, but it is even more clearly expressed in the well-known
distinction between _truth of reason_ and _truth of fact,_ between
_necessary truths_ and _contingent_ truths, between truths _a priori_
and truths _a posteriori,_ between what is _logically_ and what is
_historically_ affirmed. Indeed, it is only on the basis of this
distinction that it seems possible to give any content to the logical
doctrine, which recognizes the possibility of propositions true _in
form_ and false _in fact._ This doctrine, as usually stated, is
altogether untenable. It is impossible, above all, to maintain that
formal truth can be distinguished from effective truth, always assuming
that "form" is understood in its philosophical sense and not in that of
formalist Logic, where it indicates an arbitrarily fixed externality,
which, as such, is neither true nor false. It is therefore impossible
to maintain that one and the same proposition can be true in one
respect and false in another; for a proposition can be judged only
from one point of view, which is that of its unique signification and
value. But it is clear that once we admit the distinction between truth
of reason and truth of fact, affirmations of both kinds might be found
incorporated in the same verbal proposition, one of them false and the
other true. For example, that the saying of Cambronne, "The Guard dies
and never surrenders," is a "sublime saying" is formally (rationally)
true, but it is materially (as fact) false, because Cambronne did not
utter those words. On the other hand, that the _Assedio di Fiorenze_ of
Guerrazzi is "a very beautiful book, because it inflamed many youthful
bosoms with love of country," is materially (as fact) true, but it is
formally (rationally) false, because the fact of its having produced
such an effect is not proof of the beauty of a book, since beauty does
not consist of practical efficacy.
[Sidenote: _Absurdities arising from these distinctions; the individual
judgment as ultralogical._]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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