A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive (Vol. 1 of 2)
John Stuart Mill · en
If it be remembered that every attribute is _grounded_ on some fact or
phenomenon, either of outward sense or of inward consciousness, and that
to _possess_ an attribute is another phrase for being the cause of, or
forming part of, the fact or phenomenon upon which the attribute is
grounded; we may add one more step to complete the analysis. The
proposition which asserts that one attribute always accompanies another
attribute, really asserts thereby no other thing than this, that one
phenomenon always accompanies another phenomenon; insomuch that where we
find the one, we have assurance of the existence of the other. Thus, in
the proposition, All men are mortal, the word man connotes the attributes
which we ascribe to a certain kind of living creatures, on the ground of
certain phenomena which they exhibit, and which are partly physical
phenomena, namely the impressions made on our senses by their bodily form
and structure, and partly mental phenomena, namely the sentient and
intellectual life which they have of their own. All this is understood
when we utter the word man, by any one to whom the meaning of the word is
known. Now, when we say, Man is mortal, we mean that wherever these
various physical and mental phenomena are all found, there we have
assurance that the other physical and mental phenomenon, called death,
will not fail to take place. The proposition does not affirm _when_; for
the connotation of the word _mortal_ goes no farther than to the
occurrence of the phenomenon at some time or other, leaving the precise
time undecided.