A System of Logic: Ratiocinative and Inductive, 7th Edition, Vol. I
John Stuart Mill · en
§ 12. Let us imagine two things, between which there is no difference
(that is, no dissimilarity), except in quantity alone: for instance, a
gallon of water, and more than a gallon of water. A gallon of water,
like any other external object, makes its presence known to us by a set
of sensations which it excites. Ten gallons of water are also an
external object, making its presence known to us in a similar manner;
and as we do not mistake ten gallons of water for a gallon of water, it
is plain that the set of sensations is more or less different in the two
cases. In like manner, a gallon of water, and a gallon of wine, are two
external objects, making their presence known by two sets of sensations,
which sensations are different from each other. In the first case,
however, we say that the difference is in quantity; in the last there is
a difference in quality, while the quantity of the water and of the wine
is the same. What is the real distinction between the two cases? It is
not the province of Logic to analyse it; nor to decide whether it is
susceptible of analysis or not. For us the following considerations are
sufficient. It is evident that the sensations I receive from the gallon
of water, and those I receive from the gallon of wine, are not the same,
that is, not precisely alike; neither are they altogether unlike: they
are partly similar, partly dissimilar; and that in which they resemble
is precisely that in which alone the gallon of water and the ten gallons
do not resemble. That in which the gallon of water and the gallon of
wine are like each other, and in which the gallon and the ten gallons of
water are unlike each other, is called their quantity. This likeness
and unlikeness I do not pretend to explain, no more than any other kind
of likeness or unlikeness. But my object is to show, that when we say of
two things that they differ in quantity, just as when we say that they
differ in quality, the assertion is always grounded on a difference in
the sensations which they excite. Nobody, I presume, will say, that to
see, or to lift, or to drink, ten gallons of water, does not include in
itself a different set of sensations from those of seeing, lifting, or
drinking one gallon; or that to see or handle a foot-rule, and to see or
handle a yard-measure made exactly like it, are the same sensations. I
do not undertake to say what the difference in the sensations is.
Everybody knows, and nobody can tell; no more than any one could tell
what white is to a person who had never had the sensation. But the
difference, so far as cognizable by our faculties, lies in the
sensations. Whatever difference we say there is in the things
themselves, is, in this as in all other cases, grounded, and grounded
exclusively, on a difference in the sensations excited by them.
VI. ATTRIBUTES CONCLUDED.