The Monist, Vol. 2, 1891-1892 : $b A quarterly magazineVarious
Philosophy
The Monist, Vol. 2, 1891-1892 : $b A quarterly magazine
Various
Philosophy -- Periodicals
We do not conceive that he regards it as _necessary_ to a definition that
the defining assertions should be expressed “in the simplest manner that
can be devised.” We have also to take his use of the word “restrict”
as importing completion as well as limitation, and his use of the word
“requirements” as intending conditions that together are sufficient as
well as necessary.
If we are right in our understanding of the meanings of our author he
contemplates four cases, first, the definition of a name that has no
denotation already known and that is not to form the basis of a deductive
science, second, the definition of a name that has no denotation already
known but which is to form the basis of a deductive science, third, the
definition of a name that has a denotation already known but which is not
to form the basis of a deductive science, and fourth the definition of a
name that has a denotation already known and is to form the basis of a
deductive science.
In this fourth case our author deems it requisite for a logical
definition that there shall be made one or more assertions about the
subject of definition that are not demonstrably incompatible with one
another, that are independent of one another, that are commonly accepted
as true in respect to the subject defined and that “restrict” the meaning
of the name under definition exactly to its accepted denotation.
It seems to us that this last requirement dispenses with the necessity
of all the rest. If we have provided an assertion or a set of assertions
that do in fact complete and limit the meaning of the subject of
definition exactly to its proper denotation that is a definition in full.
It implies that the defining assertions are all consistent with one
another, and in case any assertion is dependent upon one or more of the
rest that is a circumstance wholly immaterial. _Utile per inutile non
nocetur._
Again, what is it to be commonly accepted as true? Does logical
competence depend on the altering states of our knowledge or on the
fluctuations of opinion? Was a whale logically defined as a fish before
we learned that it was a mammal?
The third case allows of the application of the same comment as that
made upon the fourth. But in the first and second cases the doctrines
of the author as well as his suppositions are very notable. He supposes
the anomaly of names without any known denotation, by which he may mean
those which have no application whatever. In respect to such he propounds
that they may be given a logical definition by making one or various
consistent assertions as applicable to them or to their attributes.
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