date

23 Sept. 1814 '.1. Logic Ch
23 Sept. 1814 '.1.

Logic

Ch.1. Ontology

Entities real fictitious &c.

'.1. Entities real & fictitious [...?]

2

2

Chapter 2

Fictitious entity (says some one) of such a locution where can be the sense or use ? By the word entity cannot but be represented something that has existence: apply to the same subject the word /adjunct/ fictitious, the effect is to give instruction that it has not any existence. This, then, is a contradiction in terms, a species of locution from which, in proportion as it has any employment, confusion, and that alone, cannot but be the effect.

Entities are either real or fictitious, what can that mean ? What but that of entities there are two species or sorts: viz. one which is itself, and another which is neither itself nor anything else ? Instead of fictitious entity, or as synonymous with fictitious entity why not here say - non-entity ?

Answer. Altogether inevitable will this seeming contradiction be found. The root of it is in the nature of language: that instrument without which, though of itself it be nothing, nothing can be said, and scarcely can anything be done.

15
Similar Items
  • Title: [23 Sept. 1814 Logic Ch.1. Ontology]
    Description: 23 Sept. 1814

    Logic

    Ch.1. Ontology

    Entities real fictitious &c.

    6

    6

    Of fictitious entities whatsoever is predicated is not consistently with strict truth, predicated (it then appears) of anything but their respective names.

    But considering that /forasmuch as/ by reason of its length and compoundedness, the use of the compound denomination name of a fictitious entity would frequently be found attended with inconvenience, for avoiding /the avoidance of/ this inconvenience, instead of this long denomination, the less long, though, unhappily, still compound denomination, fictitious entity, will commonly, after the above warning, be employed.

    19
  • Title: [23 Sept. 1814 Logic Ch.1. Ontology]
    Description: 23 Sept. 1814

    Logic

    Ch.1. Ontology

    Entities real fictitious &c.

    4

    4

    To language then - to language alone it is that fictitious entities owe their existence - their impossible, yet indispensable existence.

    In language the words which present themselves, and are employed in the character of names, are, some of them, names of real entities, - others, names of fictitious entities; and to one or other of these classes may all words which are employed in the character of names be referred.

    What will, moreover, be seen, is, that the fiction - the mode of representation by which the fictitious entities thus created, in so far as fictitious entities can be created, are dressed up in the garb, and placed upon the level, of real ones, is a contrivance but for which language, or, at any rate, language in any form superior to that of the language of the brute creation, could not have existence.

    And now perhaps may be seen the difference between a fictitious entity and a non-entity: or, to speak more strictly, the difference between the import of the two words - a difference such, that when, with propriety and use, the one is, the other cannot be employed.

    In the house designated by such a number, (naming it) in such a street, in such a town, lives a being called the Devil, having a head, body, and limbs, like a man's - horns like a goat's - wings like a bat's, and a tail like a monkey's: - Suppose this assertion made, the observation naturally might be, that the Devil, as thus described, is a non-entity. The averment made of it is, that an object of that description really exists. Of that averment, if seriously made, the object or end in view cannot but be to produce in the minds to which communication is thus made, a serious persuasion of the existence of an object conformable to the description thus expressed.

    17
  • Title: [23 Sept. 1814 Logic Ch.1. Ontology]
    Description: 23 Sept. 1814

    Logic

    Ch.1. Ontology

    Entities real fictitious &c.

    '.1.

    5

    5

    Thus much concerning a non-entity.

    Very different is the notion here meant to be presented by the term fictitious entity.

    By this term is here meant to be designated a sort of object /one of those sorts of objects/, which in every language, must for the purpose of discourse be spoken of as existing - be spoken of in the like manner as those objects which really have existence, and to which existence is seriously meant to be ascribed, are spoken of; but without any such danger as that of producing any such persuasion as that of their possessing, each for itself, any separate, or strictly speaking, any real existence.

    Take, for instances, the words motion, relation, faculty, power and the like.

    Real entities being the objects for the designation of which, in the first place, at the earliest stage of human intercourse, and in the character of names, were employed, - between the idea of a name, and that of the reality of the object to which it was applied, an association being thus formed, from a connexion thus intimate, sprung a very natural propensity, viz. that of attributing reality to every object thus designated; - in a word, of ascribing reality to the objects designated by words, which, upon due examination, would be found to be nothing but so many names of so many fictitious entities.

    To distinguish them from those fictitious entities, which, so long as language is in use among human beings, never can be spared, fabulous may be the name employed for the designation of the other class of unreal entities.

    18