Lest it should be thought that the Sorites is only good for arguments so
frivolous as the above, I subjoin an example collected from various
parts of Mill's _Political Economy_:--
The cost of labour depends on the efficiency of labour;
The rate of profits depends on the cost of labour;
The investment of capital depends on the rate of profits;
Wages depend on the investment of capital:
∴ Wages depend on the efficiency of labour.
Had it occurred to Mill to construct this Sorites, he would have
modified his doctrine of the wages-fund, and would have spared many
critics the malignant joy of refuting him.
§ 6. The Antinomy is a combination of arguments by which contradictory
attributes are proved to be predicable of the same subject. In symbols,
thus:
All M is P; All N is p;
All S is M: All S is N:
∴ All S is P. ∴ All S is p.
Now, by the principle of Contradiction, S cannot be P and p (not-P):
therefore, if both of the above syllogisms are sound, S, as the subject
of contradictory attributes, is logically an impossible thing. The
contradictory conclusions are called, respectively, Thesis and
Antithesis.
To come to particulars, we may argue: (1) that a constitution which is
at once a monarchy, an aristocracy and a democracy, must comprise the
best elements of all three forms; and must, therefore, be the best of
all forms of government: the British Constitution is, therefore, the
best of all. But (2) such a constitution must also comprise the worst
elements of monarchy, aristocracy and democracy; and, therefore, must be
the worst of all forms. Are we, then, driven to conclude that the
British Constitution, thus proved to be both the best and worst, does
not really exist at all, being logically impossible? The proofs seem
equally cogent; but perhaps neither the best nor the worst elements of
the simpler constitutions need be present in our own in sufficient force
to make it either good or bad.
Again:
(1) Every being who is responsible for his actions is free;
Man is responsible for his actions:
∴ Man is free.
(2) Every being whose actions enter into the course of nature is not free;
Man is such a being:
∴ Man is not free.
Does it, then, follow that 'Man,' as the subject of contradictory
attributes, is a nonentity? This doctrine, or something like it, has
been seriously entertained; but if to any reader it seem extravagant (as
it certainly does to me), he will no doubt find an error in the above
arguments. Perhaps the major term is ambiguous.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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