The Essentials of Logic, Being Ten Lectures on Judgment and InferenceBosanquet, Bernard
Philosophy
The Essentials of Logic, Being Ten Lectures on Judgment and Inference
Bosanquet, Bernard
Logic
The question is only one of words; but it appears to me more convenient
to reserve the term Existential judgments for those highly artificial
assertions which actually employ the Predicate “exist” or “existence,”
_e.g._ “Matter exists.” These are at the opposite end of the scale
from those last-mentioned, and are the nearest approach to Judgment
with Subject and no Predicate. That is to say, their Predicate is
the generalised abstract form of predication [1] without any special
content--the kind and degree of existence asserted being understood
from the context.
[1] Expressed in Greek by the word corresponding to “is,” used
with an accent, which does not belong to it in its ordinary use.
He is good = ἄγαθός ἐστι [= agathos esti]; He exists = ἔστι [=
esti Tr.].
Except, however, in the case of these peculiarly abstract and
reflective assertions, it must be laid down that a predicated content
is necessary to judgment, while an _explicit_ subject of predication is
unnecessary.
_Two Ideas of Things_
4. If it is possible, in some cases, to throw the whole content of
judgment into the predicate, this rather disposes us to criticise the
notion that there must be two distinct matters, objects, ideas, or
contents, in every judgment. The notion in question has two forms.
It is thought that the Judgment consists in putting two _ideas_
together, [1] or,
{102} That the Judgment consists in comparing two or
more things. [2]
[1] For this conception, see Hamilton’s _Lectures on Logic_, i.
227, and for a criticism on it. Mill’s _Logic_, Bk. I. ch. v.,
_init_, Dr. Venn seems to incline to Hamilton’s view, but I do
not feel sure that he intends to discuss the question in the
form in which it is referred to in the text. See his _Empirical
Logic_, pp. 210 and 211.
[2] See Jevons, pp. 61-2; and Mill, Bk. I. ch. iii., _init_.;
and ch. iv., _init_.
_Two Ideas_
(_a_) The notion of “two ideas” has two principal difficulties.
_Notion of mental transition pure and simple_
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