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Mini-Course in Philosophy The Logical Question |
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Section 2: Ideas and Terms Topics:
a) The Idea An idea is the representation of the essence of a thing in the mind. It is an intellectual intentional image. By the idea we have intellectual knowledge of an essence. This knowledge is abstracted by the mind working upon the findings of sense. Certain ideas are formed by a second abstraction from ideas already in the mind, and these are called abstractive or derived ideas. The ideas of things around us in this bodily world are formed directly by the mind from sense-findings; these are intuitive ideas. When we analyze an idea we find that it is, first of all, a mental representation, or intentional image, or grasp of something, that is, of some thing. The idea of thing (or being) is not analyzable; it is a simple idea. But all other ideas have this idea of thing or being as their first element, and to this other ideas are added as further elements. Thus all ideas except the idea of being are compound ideas. The analysis of a compound idea is the breaking up of an idea into the other ideas that are its elements or notes. Now, the sum of the notes of any idea makes what is called its comprehension or connotation. Thus, for example, the comprehension of the idea body consists of three notes, for a body means
The make-up of an idea in itself is, therefore, its comprehension. Now, the idea is a representation, an image. The things which it represents or images come together to constitute the extension or denotation of the idea. Hence the extension of the idea body is the sum or collection of all actual and possible bodies, that is, all lifeless bodies (liquid, solid, gaseous), and all living bodies (plants, animals, men). The more notes in an idea, the more accurate, definite, and limited is its scope of application. Thus the idea living body applies to a far smaller number of things than the idea body. Therefore we have an axiom:
This is put more briefly in the following formula:
An idea, regarded from the standpoint of its extension, is called singular when it represents a single individual, or a single group. Thus the idea of John Jones, or of my father, or of this family, is a singular idea. When the idea represents more than one of the things that belong to its extension, but not all, it is called particular. Thus the idea of some men, or a few families, or most teachers, is a particular idea. When the idea is used to represent its inferiors or subjects (for so the items of its extension are called) without any sort of limitation it is called a universal idea. Now, an idea in itself is always universal. It represents an essence, and so is, in itself, applicable to each and every being that has or can have that essence. A universal idea is made particular or singular by a restriction in its use or application. Even when there is actually only one being which has or can have the essence represented in the idea, the idea is still universal. For the human mind conceives even such a singular essence as though it could be found verified in a plurality of things. Thus the idea of God is the idea of a Being unique and supreme. But the mind, in its first vague formation of this idea, does not advert to its uniqueness; this knowledge comes later. Therefore we assert that the idea as such is universal. That is to say, the first grasp of an essence, the idea upon first formation, is the knowing of an essence independently of the fact that this essence may be found verified in only one subject or inferior.
b) The Expression of Ideas A human being has an inevitable tendency to convey knowledge as well as to acquire it. The normal mind wants to carry its ideas, judgments, reasonings to other minds, or, at any rate, to give them some outer expression for its own benefit or pleasure. There is in man a natural and an inevitable drive towards the outer expression of knowledge. Now, an idea is expressed outwardly by a term. Sometimes the idea itself is called a mental term. The outer expression of the idea in speech is called an oral term. The oral term has as its extension and equivalent the written term and the gesticular term. A term expresses an idea, an understood meaning, an intellectually grasped essence. It is not the expression of feeling. A sob is not a term, nor is a sigh, a yawn, a grunt, or a groan. A term expresses an idea. A term expresses and idea completely, whether simply and explicitly or by implication. Every word is not term, for some words do not express ideas. Such words as prepositions, adjectives, adverbs, are not terms in themselves, although they are fitted to be parts of terms. Nouns are terms, and noun equivalents or substantives. The verb is a term when its subject is expressed or understood and, if it be transitive, when its predicate is also expressed or understood; but this is true only when the verb is used in the present indicative active. A noun expresses an idea explicitly (for example, man, fire, thought -); a present indicative verb expresses an idea by implication; thus "he lives" expresses the idea life by asserting its presence in an individual. A term expresses an essence or a rounded essential meaning. A term, then, is a word or a group of words which completely expresses an idea. A terms is the outer sign of an idea. It is also the sign of the thing which the idea represents. The actual terms used in any language are arbitrary or conventional signs; they are due to human invention and choice. For while speech is natural, the determination of terms in a language is not; otherwise there would be but one language in the world. A term may have several possible meanings. Thus "body" may mean a corpse, a part of an automobile, or a group (such as "a body of citizens"). The precise sense or meaning in which a term is taken in any individual use is called its supposition.
c) The Clarification of Ideas When an idea is first formed it may be obscure. To know, for instance, that a pomegranate is a fruit is to know something essential of it, but not all. Such knowledge is not clear enough to allow the mind to distinguish this fruit from other fruits. Ideas must pass from obscurity to clarity and distinctness to be of best service to man, and man has a tendency to bring his ideas to their more perfect state. To this end he analyzes his ideas and discerns their comprehension; then he sums up his analysis in a definition of the essence represented by the idea. Definition is thus a means of clarifying ideas. Definition is an explanation of three things:
Thus the definition of man tells:
It is customary to speak of the definition of terms, but this fact must not lead us to lose sight of the full nature of definition as the explanation of the idea, reality, and term. A definition is a formula (of speech) which clearly expresses the meaning of an idea, reality, and term. It serves to clarify knowledge and to impress it sharply upon the intellectual memory (that is, upon the mind as memory). To realize its purpose a definition
A definition which fails to meet any of these requirements may be a loose definition or a description, but it is not a scientific or philosophical definition. Manifestly, a definition must be positive, not negative. There are two types of definition, physical and metaphysical. When a definition tells what a thing is by naming its actual constitution as a thing, it is a physical definition. Thus man is defined as "a creature composed of body and soul." When, however, a definition tells what a thing is by naming the points of reality which make it understandable, it is a metaphysical definition. Thus man is defined as "a rational animal." This latter definition sums up the points of reality which the mind grasps in understanding what man means:
All the points of reality by which man is grasped by an adequate mind may be summed up as animal plus rational, and thus the metaphysical definition of man is "a rational animal." Another means of clarifying ideas and terms -- in a word, clarifying knowledge -- is that known as logical division. Definition analyzes the comprehension of an idea and states what it finds; logical division takes the extension of an idea and sets the items found there in orderly groups. Logical division is a classification of the items or members of the extension of an idea. The technical name for these items or member of extension is subjects or inferiors. Thus, to illustrate, Tom, Dick, and Harry, as well as Mary and Jane, are subjects or inferiors of the idea human being. When we classify by logical division we must have, in each instance, a single standpoint, otherwise confusion and not clarification of knowledge will result from our effort. This requirement is expressed in the rule,
To classify people as "college graduates, high school graduates, and Catholics" (as a recent poll actually did) is wholly illogical, for the principle of division shifts from schooling to religion and so spoils consistency and induces confusion. For the rest, logical division
Violation of any of these rules would make logical division an instrument of confusion instead of clarification of knowledge. Thus two notable means of clarifying ideas and terms, and so two means of making knowledge more valuable to man, are definition and logical division.
Summary of the Section In this Section we have defined idea and have learned what is meant by its comprehension and its extension. We have noticed that, on the score of comprehension, ideas are simple or compound; and that, on the score of extension, ideas are singular, particular, or universal. Yet we have seen that the idea in itself and by its nature is universal. We have learned that the idea is outwardly expressed by the term, which is the sign of an idea and of the reality of which the idea is the mental representation. We have studied two important means of clarifying ideas (and terms), definition and logical division.
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