Aristotle
this last phrase, not what is more knowable to all actual men but,
what is more knowable to men of well-trained and well-constituted
intellect; just as, when we speak of the wholesome, we mean what is
wholesome to the well-constituted body.[279] These conditions of
Definition you must thoroughly master, and apply to each debate as
the occasion may require. Your task in refuting an alleged definition
will be the easiest in those cases where it conforms to neither of
the above conditions; that is, when it enunciates neither what is
_notius naturâ_ nor what is _notius nobis_.[280]
[Footnote 273: Ibid. v. p. 142, b. 20.]
[Footnote 274: Topic. VI. iv. p. 141, b. 3-14.]
[Footnote 275: Ibid. b. 22.]
[Footnote 276: Ibid. b. 25.]
[Footnote 277: Ibid. b. 16.]
[Footnote 278: Ibid. b. 34.
The general mental fact here noticed by Aristotle may be seen
philosophically stated and explained in the volume of Professor Bain
on the Emotions and the Will. (Chapter on Consciousness, sect. 19, p.
581, 2nd ed.)
"A sensation is, under any view of it, a conscious element of the
mind. As pleasure or pain, we are conscious in one way; as
discrimination, we are conscious in the other way, namely, in a mode
of neutral excitement.--But this is not all. After much contact with
the sensible world, a new situation arises, and a new variety of the
consciousness, which stands in need of some explanation. When a child
experiences for the first time the sensation of scarlet, there is
nothing but the sensibility of a new impression more or less intense.
. . . It is very difficult for us to realize or define this original
shock, our position in mature life being totally altered. It is the
rarest thing for us _then_ to come under a radically new impression;
and we can only, by help of imperfect analogies, form an approximate
conception of what happens at the first shock of a discriminative
sensation. The process of engraining these impressions on the mind
after repetition, gives to subsequent sensations quite a different
character as compared with the first. The second shock of scarlet, if
it stood alone, would doubtless resemble the preceding; but such is
the nature of the mind, that the new shock will not stand alone, but
restores the notion or idea or trace that survived the former. The
sensation is no longer the primitive stroke of surprise, but a
coalition of a present shock with all that remains of the previous
occasions. Hence it may properly be said, when we see, or hear, or
touch, or move, that what comes before us is really contributed more
by the mind itself than by the object present. The consciousness is
complicated by three concurring elements--the new shock, the flash of
agreement with the sum total of the past, and the feeling of that
past as revived in the present. In truth, the new sensation is apt to
be entirely over-ridden by the old; and, in place of discriminating
by virtue of our susceptibility to what is characteristic in it, our
discrimination follows another course. For example, if I have before
me two shades of colour, instead of feeling the difference exactly as
I am struck at the moment, my judgment resorts to the round-about
process of first identifying each with some reiterated series of past
impressions; and, having two sum-totals in my mind, the difference
that I feel is between those totals. If I made a mistake, it may be
attributed not so much to a wrong act of discrimination, as to a
wrong act of identification.--All sensations, therefore, after the
first of each kind, involve a flash of recovery from the past, which
is what really determines their character. The present shock is
simply made use of as a means of reviving some one past in preference
to all others; the new impression of scarlet is in itself almost
insignificant, serving only as the medium of resuscitating the
cerebral condition resulting from the united force of all the
previous scarlets.--Sensation thus calls into operation the two great
intellectual laws, in addition to the primitive sensibility of
difference.--When we consider ourselves as performing the most
ordinary act of seeing or hearing, we are bringing into play those
very functions of the intellect that make its development and its
glory in its highest manifestations."]
[Footnote 279: Topic. VI. iv. p. 142, a. 10.]
[Footnote 280: Ibid. a. 12; also, a. 32.]
The canon being, That what is _posterius_ must be defined by its
_prius_,--the definer may sin against this in defining the _prius_ by
its _posterius_; _e.g._, if he defines the stationary and the
determinate by means of the moveable and the variable.[281] Also,
when his definition is neither _prius_, nor _posterius_, but of equal
position with the definiend, he is at fault. This may happen (1) when
he defines by an Opposite (for, according to some, the science of
Opposites is one and the same, and it is impossible that either one
of a pair can be absolutely more knowable than the other; though it
is true that no relative can be understood or explained without the
knowledge of its correlative, _e.g._, double and half); or (2) when
he includes the definiend itself in his definition, either under its
proper name or any other name;[282] or (3) when he defines by means
of a contra-specific to the definiend--by something of equal specific
rank or position, which is therefore _simul naturâ_ therewith
(_e.g._, Odd is that which is greater than even by unity); or (4)
when he defines by something specifically subordinate (_e.g._, An
even number is that which may be bisected, where bisected means
divisible by two, itself one among the even numbers[283]).
[Footnote 281: Ibid. a. 20: [Greek: pro/teron ga\r to\ me/non kai\
to\ ô(risme/non tou= a)ori/stou kai\ e)n kinê/sei o)/ntos.]]
[Footnote 282: Topic. VI. iv. p. 142, a. 22-b. 6.]
[Footnote 283: Ibid. b. 7-19: [Greek: pa/lin, ei) tô=|
a)ntidiê|rême/nô| to\ a)ntidiê|rême/non ô(/ristai--o(moi/ôs de\ kai\
ei) dia\ tô=n u(poka/tô to\ e)pa/nô ô(/ristai.]]
2. The second _locus_ (after that bearing on the _Prius et Notius_)
of argument for **impugning a definition is, where it does not
enunciate the genus in which the definiend is really included.
The mention of the genus, as enunciating the fundamental essence of
the definiend, ought to stand first in the definition. If your
opponent defines body--that which has three dimensions, or man--that
which knows how to count, you attack him by asking, What is it that
has three dimensions? What is it that knows how to count? No genus
has been assigned.[284]
[Footnote 284: Ibid. v. p. 142, b. 22-29.]
3. A third _locus_ is, where the definiend is a complex whole having
reference to several distinct facts or phenomena, while the
definition indicates only one of them. Thus, if grammar be
defined--the knowing how to write from dictation, you will object
that it is just as much--the knowing how to read. The definition is
incomplete unless it includes both.[285]
[Footnote 285: Ibid. b. 30.]
4. A fourth _locus_ is, where the definiend admits both of a better
and a worse construction, and where the definition enunciates only
the worse. You may impugn it, on the ground that every cognition and
every power must be understood as tending to its best results.[286]
[Footnote 286: Ibid. p. 143, a. 9.]
6. A fifth _locus_ is, where the definiend is enunciated as ranking,
not in the lowest and nearest species to which it belongs but, in
some higher and more distinct genus. Here the real essence will not
be declared, and the definition will thus be incomplete; unless
indeed it includes, along with the highest genus, the superadded
mention of all the differentiæ descending down to the lowest species.
It will then be complete, because it will include, in circumlocutory
phrase, all that would be declared by enunciating the specific
name.[287]
[Footnote 287: Ibid. a. 15-28.]
6. Assuming the genus to be truly declared in the definition you will
examine whether the differentiæ enunciated are differentiæ at all?
whether they really belong to the definiend? what is it which they
serve to contrast with and exclude,--since, if there be nothing such,
they cannot be truly differentiæ? whether the differential term and
its counter-differential apply to and cover the whole genus? whether,
granting the differentia to be real, it be such, when taken along
with the genus, as to constitute a true species, and whether its
counter-differentia be such also? This is a _locus_ furnishing many
possibilities of impugning the definition.[288]
[Footnote 288: Topic. VI. vi. p. 143, a. 29-b. 10.]
7. Perhaps the definition may enunciate a differentia which is merely
negative; _e.g._, A line is length without breadth. If you are
debating with a respondent who holds the (Platonic) doctrine of
Ideas, and who considers each Idea or genus to be something
numerically one, distinct from all its participants, you will find
here a _locus_ for attacking them.[289] He asserts the existence of a
Self-long or generical long, a Self-animal or generic animal, each
numerically one. Now, upon this hypothesis, since of all long you may
predicate either in the affirmative or the negative (_i.e._, either
it is broad or it is not broad), so this alternative may be
predicated of the Self-long or generical long; and thus the genus
will coincide with, or fall under the definition of, one among its
own species. Or, if this be denied, it will follow that the generic
long must be both broad and not broad; which is a contradiction still
more inadmissible. Accordingly, against one who holds the doctrine of
Ideas, declaring the genus to be _unum numero_, the negative
differentia will furnish grounds for attack; but not against any
other respondent.[290] For there are various cases in which the
negative must be employed as a part of the differentia: _e.g._, in
privative terms, blind is one whose nature it is to see but who does
not see. And, even when the differentia enunciated is affirmative, it
may have for its condivident member only a negative term, _e.g._,
length having-breadth has for its condivident member only the
negative, length not-having-breadth.[291]
[Footnote 289: Ibid. b. 11-30.]
[Footnote 290: Ibid. b. 29: [Greek: ô(/ste _pro\s e)kei/nous mo/nous_
chrê/simos o( to/pos, o(/soi to\ ge/nos e(\n a)rithmô=| phasi\n
ei)=nai. tou=to de\ poiou=sin oi( ta\s i)de/as tithe/menoi; au)to\
ga\r mê=kos kai\ au)to\ zô=|on ge/nos phasi\n ei)=nai.]]
[Footnote 291: Ibid. b. 33.]
8. Perhaps the definition may enunciate as a differentia what is
really a subordinate species; or what is really the genus itself
under another name; or what is not _Quale_, but _Quid_; or what
belongs to the definiend as an accident only. Each of these is a
_locus_ for arguments against the definition.[292]
[Footnote 292: Topica, VI. vi. p. 144, a. 5-27.]
9. Perhaps also, in the definition given, the differentia or the
species may be found predicable of the entire genus; or the genus may
be found predicable of the differentia itself, and not of objects
under it; or the species (sometimes even one of its sub-species) may
be found predicable of the differentia; or perhaps the differentia
may not be a _prius_ as regards the species (which it ought to be,
while it is a _posterius_ as regards the genus). Arguments against
the definition may be drawn from any one of these loci.[293]
[Footnote 293: Ibid. a. 28-b. 11.]
10. Recollect that the same differentia cannot belong to two distinct
genera neither of which comprehends the other, unless both are
comprehended under some higher genus. Examine whether this is
observed in the definition tendered to you.[294]
[Footnote 294: Ibid. b. 12.]
11. No genuine differentia can be derived either from the Category