A System of Logic: Ratiocinative and Inductive, 7th Edition, Vol. II
John Stuart Mill · en
It remains to be considered what principles are to be adhered to in
giving general names, so that these names, and the general propositions
in which they fill a place, may conduce most to the purposes of
Induction.
CHAPTER IV.
OF THE REQUISITES OF A PHILOSOPHICAL LANGUAGE, AND THE PRINCIPLES OF
DEFINITION.
§ 1. In order that we may possess a language perfectly suitable for the
investigation and expression of general truths, there are two principal,
and several minor, requisites. The first is, that every general name
should have a meaning, steadily fixed, and precisely determined. When,
by the fulfilment of this condition, such names as we possess are fitted
for the due performance of their functions, the next requisite, and the
second in order of importance, is that we should possess a name wherever
one is needed; wherever there is anything to be designated by it, which
it is of importance to express.
The former of these requisites is that to which our attention will be
exclusively directed in the present chapter.
§ 2. Every general name, then, must have a certain and knowable meaning.
Now the meaning (as has so often been explained) of a general
connotative name, resides in the connotation; in the attribute on
account of which, and to express which, the name is given. Thus, the
name animal being given to all things which possess the attributes of
sensation and voluntary motion, the word connotes those attributes
exclusively, and they constitute the whole of its meaning. If the name
be abstract, its denotation is the same with the connotation of the
corresponding concrete: it designates directly the attribute, which the
concrete term implies. To give a precise meaning to general names is,
then, to fix with steadiness the attribute or attributes connoted by
each concrete general name, and denoted by the corresponding abstract.
Since abstract names, in the order of their creation, do not precede
but follow concrete ones, as is proved by the etymological fact that
they are almost always derived from them; we may consider their meaning
as determined by, and dependent on, the meaning of their concrete: and
thus the problem of giving a distinct meaning to general language, is
all included in that of giving a precise connotation to all concrete
general names.