Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind
John Stuart Mill · en
[Editor's footnote 50: The author says, that no very distinct
boundaries are marked by the three terms, Differentia, Proprium, and
Accidens, nor do they effect a scientific division. As used,
however, by the more accurate of the school logicians, they do mark
out distinct boundaries, and do effect a scientific division.
Of the attributes common to a class, some have been taken into
consideration in forming the class, and are included in the
signification of its name. Such, in the case of man, are
rationality, and the outward form which we call the human. These
attributes are its Differentiæ; the fundamental differences which
distinguish that class from the others most nearly allied to it. The
school logicians were contented with one Differentia, whenever one
was sufficient completely to circumscribe the class. But this was an
error, because one attribute may be sufficient for distinction, and
yet may not exhaust the signification of the class-name. All
attributes, then, which are part of that signification, are set
apart as Differentiæ. Other attributes, though not included among
those which constitute the class, and which are directly signified
by its name, are consequences of some of those which constitute the
class, and always found along with them. These attributes of the
class are its Propria. Thus, to be bounded by three straight lines
is the Differentia of a triangle: to have the sum of its three
angles equal to two right angles, being a consequence of its
Differentia, is a Proprium of it. Rationality is a Differentia of
the class Man: to be able to build cities is a Proprium, being a
consequence of rationality, but not, as that is, included in the
meaning of the word Man. All other attributes of the class, which
are neither included in the meaning of the name, nor are
consequences of any which are included, are Accidents, however
universally and constantly they may be true of the class; as
blackness, of crows.
The author's remark, that these three classes of Attributives differ
from one another only in the accident of their application, is most
just. There are not some attributes which are always Differentiæ,
and others which are always Propria, or always Accidents. The same
attribute which is a Differentia of one genus or species, may be,
and often is, a Proprium or an Accidens of others, and so
on.--_Ed._]