date

16 Aug 1814 Logic Ch. Clearness
16 Aug 1814

Logic

Ch. Clearness Exposition

'.2. Subject of Exposition

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3

Text

Case where the exposition takes for its subject the object /an object proposed/ to be expounded, as well as the word by means /with the assistance/ /help/ of which in the character of its sign, the object is proposed to be expounded - case where without regard /reference/ to any particular object or class of objects, the exposition takes for its subject a word, {being} /considered in the character of/ a {sound} /sign/, which is wont to be employed for the designation of some object or class of objects is in use to be employed. Of these two cases the first mentioned is that to which for the purpose of this enquiry convenience seems to require that the first place should be allotted.

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    '.2. Subject of Exposition - subjects of /to/ which it is susceptible /applicable/.

    Be the exposition itself what it may, a subject it can not but have - a subject to which it is applicable.

    This subject - what may it be ? - what are the modifications /variations/ /diversifications/ of which it is susceptible ? - a question to which in the first place an answer must be provided. Why ? because on the nature of the subject will depend the nature of the sort /mode/ of exposition of which it is susceptible.

    In relation to the subject of this instrument of clearness two propositions /axioms/ /aphorisms/ /observations/ may be laid down /require to be brought to view/ in the first place.

    1. The subject of exposition viz. the immediate and only immediate subject is in every case a word.

    2. That word is in every case a name: i.e. a word considered in the character of a name.

    Exposition supposes thought. A word is a sign of thought: How imperfectly so ever - in a manner how deficient so ever in respect of clearness - thought, it is true, may be expressed by signs

    other than words - by inarticulate sounds, by gestures, by deportment. But, as often as any thing /object/ has been considered in the character of a subject of or for exposition, that object has been a word. (a) The immediate subject of the exposition has been a word - whatsoever else may have been brought to view, the signification of a word - of the word in question has been brought to view: the word is not only a subject, but the only physically sensible subject, upon and in relation to which and upon which the operation, called exposition has been performed.

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  • Title: [18 Aug. 1814 Logic 1]
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    Ch. Clearness Exposition

    '.5. Exposition

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    Be the word what it may, if so it be that it is wont to be employed in more senses than one, between or among which no coincidence, either total or partial, is perceptible, when, at the same time, while by one person it is received in one sense, by another person it is received in another different sense, - an operation, necessarily preliminary to definition, is distinction or disambiguation; in other words, when so it happens that the word in question has been employed in the character of a sign for the designation of several objects, insomuch that, without further explanation, it may happen to it to be taken as indicative of one object, when, by the author of the discourse, it was meant to be indicative, not of that, but of a different one, what for the exclusion of such misconception, may every now and then be necessary, is - an intimation, making known which of all these several objects the word is, in the case in question, meant to designate, and what other, or others, it is not meant to designate.

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    '.4.2 Definition etc.

    The genus represented by a word which is the name of that aggregate, in which all the other aggregates of the nest to which it belongs are contained and included, has no genus which is superior to it; it is, therefore, in its nature incapable of receiving a definition; meaning always that mode of exposition which, in modern practice, seems to be universally understood by that name.

    Meantime the class of words which are in this sense of the word incapable of receiving exposition in that shape are among those, in the instance of which the demand for exposition is the most imperious. For these then that mode of exposition is necessary to which, by the description of succedaneous modes of exposition, reference has just been made, and of which an account will presently be endeavoured to be rendered.

    Yet of these words which are all of them incapable of receiving a definition, in effect definitions are very generally, not to say universally wont to be given with a degree of unconcern and confidence, not inferior to that with which the operation is attended, when the subject upon which it is performed, is with the strictest propriety susceptible of operation in that shape /mode/. Of the sort of shape in which these abstruse examples shew themselves /make their appearance/ an account will be given presently.

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