A System of Logic: Ratiocinative and Inductive, 7th Edition, Vol. I — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
A System of Logic: Ratiocinative and Inductive, 7th Edition, Vol. I
John Stuart Mill · en
In all these cases there is not really any inference; there is in the
conclusion no new truth, nothing but what was already asserted in the
premises, and obvious to whoever apprehends them. The fact asserted in
the conclusion is either the very same fact, or part of the fact
asserted in the original proposition. This follows from our previous
analysis of the Import of Propositions. When we say, for example, that
some lawful sovereigns are tyrants, what is the meaning of the
assertion? That the attributes connoted by the term "lawful sovereign,"
and the attributes connoted by the term "tyrant," sometimes coexist in
the same individual. Now this is also precisely what we mean, when we
say that some tyrants are lawful sovereigns; which, therefore, is not a
second proposition inferred from the first, any more than the English
translation of Euclid's Elements is a collection of theorems different
from, and consequences of, those contained in the Greek original. Again,
if we assert that no great general is a rash man, we mean that the
attributes connoted by "great general," and those connoted by "rash,"
never coexist in the same subject; which is also the exact meaning which
would be expressed by saying, that no rash man is a great general. When
we say that all quadrupeds are warm-blooded, we assert, not only that
the attributes connoted by "quadruped" and those connoted by
"warm-blooded" sometimes coexist, but that the former never exist
without the latter: now the proposition, Some warm-blooded creatures are
quadrupeds, expresses the first half of this meaning, dropping the
latter half; and therefore has been already affirmed in the antecedent
proposition, All quadrupeds are warm-blooded. But that _all_
warm-blooded creatures are quadrupeds, or, in other words, that the
attributes connoted by "warm-blooded" never exist without those connoted
by "quadruped," has not been asserted, and cannot be inferred. In order
to reassert, in an inverted form, the whole of what was affirmed in the
proposition, All quadrupeds are warm-blooded, we must convert it by
contraposition, thus, Nothing which is not warm-blooded is a quadruped.
This proposition, and the one from which it is derived, are exactly
equivalent, and either of them may be substituted for the other; for,
to say that when the attributes of a quadruped are present, those of a
warm-blooded creature are present, is to say that when the latter are
absent the former are absent.