JB_101_359.xml

Title: [5 Sept. 1814 Logic Ch. │ │]

Description: 5 Sept. 1814

Logic

Ch. │ │ Methodization

Division of Aggregates

Linnæus

2

2

In the system of Linnæus, if the contents of the whole Earth be taken for the first, highest and all-comprehensive aggregate, the number of nests or ranks of subordinate aggregates constituting the result of the successive divisions to which it has been subjected, will, when added to that first aggregate, the original dividend be found to be seven; the number of these successive acts of division being six: viz. 1. Kingdoms. 2. Classes. 3. Orders. 4. Genera or Genus's. 5. Species. 6. Varieties.

For further explanation, taking the Class for the prime dividend, to this prime dividend he subjoins as synonymous to it and explanatory of it, the compound term Genus summum (Highest Genus): to Ordo (Order), the compound term Genus intermedium: to Genus (Kind), the compound term Genus intermedium: to Species (Species), that same appellative: to Varietas (Variety), the term Individuum.

1. Unfortunately in this illustration the prime dividend or the all-comprehensive aggregate is omitted: so also the results of the first act of division, the three physical Kingdoms: What is done for the purpose of illustration consists therefore in taking the term Genus, and with two different epithets or adjuncts necessarily latin, employed for distinction sake, applying it as synonymous in the first place to Class, and then again to Ordo.

2. What is still more unfortunate, in this additional tree, designed for the illustration of the others, he places Individuum on the same level with Varietas, as if the two appellatives were, with relation to one another, synonymous and interconvertibly employable; whereas, varietas (variety) is the name of an aggregate, and in that character employed even by himself.

316

JB_101_358.xml

Title: [5 Sept. 1814 + Logic C.10.]

Description: 5 Sept. 1814 +

Logic

C.10. Sec.10

Ch. │ │ Methodization

Division of Aggregates

Linnæus nomenclature

of the subdivisions

1

1

Linnæi Systeme Naturæ, Ed. 3. Vendobonæ 1767, p.13.

Successive or Resolative divisions.

Class has for its conjugate to classify: genus, to generalize, but in a different sense: species again to specify but in a sense different from both.

In relation to the names employed for the designation of the aggregates of different dimensions, which are regularly the results of the successive divisions performed in a system of logical subalternation, what is to be wished is - that in the instance of which intimation should be given, 1. in the first place of the number of nests or ranks of aggregates contained in the system, 2. of the rank occupied by the aggregate of which the word in question is the name.

In such a system the most capacious of all the aggregates, viz. that in which all the others are contained, will occupy the first rank; those which constitute the result of the first act of division to which it is subjected, the second rank; those which are the result of the division to which the results of the first division are subjected, the 3 d. rank.

The number of nests or ranks will be one more than the number of the acts of division, to which the aggregate, which occupies the most capacious, highest, and first rank, has been subjected.

315

JB_101_360.xml

Title: [5 Sept. 1814 Logic Ch. │ │]

Description: 5 Sept. 1814

Logic

Ch. │ │ Methodization

Division of Aggregates

Linnæus

3

3

3. For further illustration, he gives two other nests of aggregates: the one constituted by the divisions to which the territory of a political state has been found subjected; the other by the divisions to which the Military Establishment has been found subjected.

Unfortunately, in both these instances the number of these successive acts of division and subdivision being altogether arbitrary, has, in different political states and in the same political state at different times, been different, and moreover as to the denominations which for the designation of them are employed by him, the language in which this work of his is written being the latin language, it is from that language that they were all of them, necessarily deduced. But in neither of those instances does the Latin language afford an adequate number of names of aggregates, the relation of which to each other in respect of capacity and amplitude were or are found by him determinate. {The Geographical or Topographical aggregates, which he employs, and which are constituted by portions of the Earth's surface, with their divisions and subdivisions, are, 1. Provinciæ, put as correspondent to Classis and Genus summum, 2. Territoria, put as correspondent to Ordo, and Genus intermedium; 3. Parocciæ, put as correspondent to Genus, and Genus præmium[?]; 4. Pagi, put as correspondent to Species; 5. Domicilium, put as correspondent to Varietas and to Individuum.

317