Deductive Logic | Page 8

and 'swiftly' can only help to form a term, as in the proposition, 'The horse is galloping swiftly over the plain.'
§ 73. A term then may be said to be a categorematic word or collection of words, that is to say, one which can be used by itself as a predicate.
§ 74. To entitle a word or collection of words to be called a term, it is not necessary that it should be capable of standing by itself as a subject. Many terms which can be used as predicates are incapable of being used as subjects: but every term which can be used as a subject (with the doubtful exception of proper names) can be used also as a predicate. The attributives 'swift' and 'galloping' are terms, quite as much as the subject 'horse,' but they cannot themselves be used as subjects.
§ 75. When an attributive appears to be used as a subject, it is owing to a grammatical ellipse. Thus in Latin we say 'Boni sapientes sunt,' and in English 'The good are wise,' because it is sufficiently declared by the inflexional form in the one case, and by the usage of the language in the other, that men are signified. It is an accident of language how far adjectives can be used as subjects. They cease to be logical attributives the moment they are so used.
§ 76. There is a sense in which every word may become categorematic, namely, when it is used simply as a word, to the neglect of its proper meaning. Thus we can say--'"Swiftly" is an adverb.' 'Swiftly' in this sense is really no more than the proper name for a particular word. This sense is technically known as the 'suppositio materialis' of a word.
CHAPTER II.
Of the Division of Things.
§ 77. Before entering on the divisions of terms it is necessary to advert for a moment to a division of the things whereof they are names.
§ 78. By a 'thing' is meant simply an object of thought--whatever one can think about.
§ 79. Things are either Substances or Attributes. Attributes may be sub-divided into Qualities and Relations.
Thing ______________|_____________ | | Substance Attribute ___________|__________ | | Quality Relation
§ 80. A Substance is a thing which can be conceived to exist by itself. All bodies are material substances. The soul, as a thinking subject, is an immaterial substance.
§ 81. An Attribute is a thing which depends for its existence upon a substance, e.g. greenness, hardness, weight, which cannot be conceived to exist apart from green, hard, and heavy substances.
§ 82. A Quality is an attribute which does not require more than one substance for its existence. The attributes just mentioned are qualities. There might be greenness, hardness, and weight, if there were only one green, hard and heavy substance in the universe.
§ 83. A Relation is an attribute which requires two or more substances for its existence, e.g. nearness, fatherhood, introduction.
§ 84. When we say that a substance can be conceived to exist by itself, what is meant is that it can be conceived to exist independently of other substances. We do not mean that substances can be conceived to exist independently of attributes, nor yet out of relation to a mind perceiving them. Substances, so far as we can know them, are only collections of attributes. When therefore we say that substances can be conceived to exist by themselves, whereas attributes are dependent for their existence upon substances, the real meaning of the assertion reduces itself to this, that it is only certain collections of attributes which can be conceived to exist independently; whereas single attributes depend for their existence upon others. The colour, smoothness or solidity of a table cannot be conceived apart from the extension, whereas the whole cluster of attributes which constitutes the table can be conceived to exist altogether independently of other 'such clusters. We can imagine a table to exist, if the whole material universe were annihilated, and but one mind left to perceive it. Apart from mind, however, we cannot imagine it: since what we call the attributes of a material substance are no more than the various modes in which we find our minds affected.
§ 85. The above division of things belongs rather to the domain of metaphysics than of logic: but it is the indispensable basis of the division of terms, to which we now proceed.
CHAPTER III.
Of the Division of Terms.
§ 86. The following scheme presents to the eye the chief divisions of terms.
Term Division of terms according to their place in thought. Subject-Term Attributive
according to the kind of thing signified. Abstract Concrete
according to Quantity in Extension. Singular Common
according to Quality. Positive Privative Negative
according to number of meanings. Univocal Equivocal
according to number of things involved in the name. Absolute Relative
according to number of quantities. Connotative Non-connotative

Subject-term and Attributive.
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