The Origin of the Knowledge of Right and WrongBrentano, Franz
Philosophy
The Origin of the Knowledge of Right and Wrong
Brentano, Franz
Ethics
An argument follows later (p. 151) the logical connexion of which I
understand just as little. It is rightly observed that in and for
itself we have the right to deny of anything an infinite number of
predicates, and it is with equal right added that in spite of this,
we do not really pass all these negative judgments. And now what
conclusion is drawn from these premisses? Perhaps this, that the
fact that a certain negative judgment is warranted is not sufficient
in itself to explain the entrance of the judgment. This we may
without hesitation admit. But Sigwart concludes quite otherwise; he
permits himself to assert, it follows from this that the further
condition which is here lacking is that the corresponding positive
affirmation has not yet been attempted. This is indeed a bold leap,
and one which my logic at least is not able to follow. And why, if
one were to inquire further, are not all the positive judgments here
concerned really attempted? The most probable answer, judging by the
examples given by Sigwart (this stone reads, writes, sings, composes;
justice is blue, green, heptagonal, rotating), is, that this has
not been done because the negative judgment has already been made
with evident certainty; for this would best explain why there is no
“danger of any one attributing these predicates to the stone or to
justice.” If, however, any one prefer to answer that “the narrowness
of consciousness” makes it impossible to attempt at the same time
an infinite number of positive judgments, I am content with this
expedient also, only it must then be asked if this appeal ought not to
have been made directly and earlier, since Sigwart himself calls the
possible negative judgments an “_immeasurable_ quantity.”
It is also a curious error (Marty has already called attention to it),
when Sigwart asserts that in contradistinction to what holds good of
the negative judgment “every subject admits only of a limited number
of predicates being affirmed.” But why? Can we not, for example, say a
whole hour is greater than half an hour, greater than a third, greater
than a fourth and so on _ad infin._?... If then, notwithstanding, I do
not really make all these judgments, there are evidently good reasons
for this; above all that the “narrowness of consciousness” forbids it.
But then this might also be applied most successfully in regard to
negative judgments.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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