A System of Logic: Ratiocinative and Inductive, 7th Edition, Vol. I
John Stuart Mill · en
We are now able to fix the logical meaning of these terms. Every class
which is a real Kind, that is, which is distinguished from all other
classes by an indeterminate multitude of properties not derivable from
one another, is either a genus or a species. A Kind which is not
divisible into other Kinds, cannot be a genus, because it has no
species under it; but it is itself a species, both with reference to the
individuals below and to the genera above (Species Prædicabilis and
Species Subjicibilis.) But every Kind which admits of division into real
Kinds (as animal into mammal, bird, fish, &c., or bird into various
species of birds) is a genus to all below it, a species to all genera in
which it is itself included. And here we may close this part of the
discussion, and pass to the three remaining predicables, Differentia,
Proprium, and Accidens.
§ 5. To begin with Differentia. This word is correlative with the words
genus and species, and as all admit, it signifies the attribute which
distinguishes a given species from every other species of the same
genus. This is so far clear: but we may still ask, which of the
distinguishing attributes it signifies. For we have seen that every Kind
(and a species must be a Kind) is distinguished from other Kinds not by
any one attribute, but by an indefinite number. Man, for instance, is a
species of the genus animal: Rational (or rationality, for it is of no
consequence here whether we use the concrete or the abstract form) is
generally assigned by logicians as the Differentia; and doubtless this
attribute serves the purpose of distinction: but it has also been
remarked of man, that he is a cooking animal; the only animal that
dresses its food. This, therefore, is another of the attributes by which
the species man is distinguished from other species of the same genus:
would this attribute serve equally well for a differentia? The
Aristotelians say No; having laid it down that the differentia must,
like the genus and species, be of the _essence_ of the subject.