Logic eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 461 pages of information about Logic.

Logic eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 461 pages of information about Logic.
of equivocation.  ‘Man’ is generally defined as a kind of animal; but ‘animal’ is often used as opposed to and excluding man.  ‘Liberal’ has one meaning under the suppositio of politics, another with regard to culture, and still another as to the disposal of one’s private means.  Clearly, therefore, the connotation of general terms is relative to the suppositio, or “universe of discourse.”

Sec. 5.  Relative and Absolute Terms.—­Some words go in couples or groups:  like ‘up-down,’ ‘former-latter,’ ‘father-mother-children,’ ‘hunter-prey,’ ‘cause-effect,’ etc.  These are called Relative Terms, and their nature, as explained by Mill, is that the connotations of the members of such a pair or group are derived from the same set of facts (the fundamentum relationis).  There cannot be an ‘up’ without a ‘down,’ a ‘father’ without a ‘mother’ and ‘child’; there cannot be a ‘hunter’ without something hunted, nor ‘prey’ without a pursuer.  What makes a man a ‘hunter’ is his activities in pursuit; and what turns a chamois into ‘prey’ is its interest in these activities.  The meaning of both terms, therefore, is derived from the same set of facts; neither term can be explained without explaining the other, because the relation between them is connoted by both; and neither can with propriety be used without reference to the other, or to some equivalent, as ‘game’ for ‘prey.’

In contrast with such Relative Terms, others have been called Absolute or Non-relative.  Whilst ‘hunter’ and ‘prey’ are relative, ‘man’ and ‘chamois’ have been considered absolute, as we may use them without thinking of any special connection between their meanings.  However, if we believe in the unity of Nature and in the relativity of knowledge (that is, that all knowledge depends upon comparison, or a perception of the resemblances and differences of things), it follows that nothing can be completely understood except through its agreements or contrasts with everything else, and that all terms derive their connotation from the same set of facts, namely, from general experience.  Thus both man and chamois are animals; this fact is an important part of the meaning of both terms, and to that extent they are relative terms.  ‘Five yards’ and ‘five minutes’ are very different notions, yet they are profoundly related; for their very difference helps to make both notions distinct; and their intimate connection is shown in this, that five yards are traversed in a certain time, and that five minutes are measured by the motion of an index over some fraction of a yard upon the dial.

The distinction, then, between relative and non-relative terms must rest, not upon a fundamental difference between them (since, in fact, all words are relative), but upon the way in which words are used.  We have seen that some words, such as ‘up-down,’ ‘cause-effect,’ can only be used relatively; and these may, for distinction, be called Correlatives.  But other words, whose meanings are only partially

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Logic from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.