44 THE SCIENCE OF LOGIC. 



or more entirely distinct classes of things and has therefore two 

 or more distinct senses : as vice, a bad habit, and vice, a mechanical 

 instrument. All languages contain many such terms, and they 

 are all essentially ambiguous and a fertile source of confusion of 

 thought. The meaning of such terms must be determined from 

 the context ; and when the logical characteristics of such a term, 

 apart from any context, are asked for, it is to all intents and pur 

 poses equivalent to two or more logical terms according to the 

 number of distinct meanings it may have, and each of these must 

 be dealt with separately. Hence the present division comes 

 naturally first in our treatment of the logical divisions of concepts 

 and terms. 1 It concerns language rather than thought; and the 

 same is true of analogy and metaphor. When we apply a term 

 to an object in an analogical, transferred, metaphorical sense, it is 

 because of some resemblance, or other relation, of the object in 

 question to the object which the term properly and primarily 

 denotes ; as when we say that certain medicine, or climate, or food, 

 or complexion, is healthy, because of the connexion of each of 

 these with the living being of which health is properly and 

 primarily asserted ; or when we speak of a smiling meadow ; or 

 of the foot of a mountain, of a man, or of a page. In all such 

 instances it will be seen that the idea underlying the name and 

 expressed by it is not quite the same in each case : the term is 

 not applicable univocally or in exactly the same sense to the ob 

 jects it is made to denote nor yet can the underlying idea be said 

 to be totally different from case to case : nor is the term therefore 

 applied equivocally but the idea is in fact partially the same and 

 partially different. An idea applied in this way, with the term that 

 expresses it, is usually described as analogical. Of course every 

 universal idea or term may conceivably be used in this way as 

 well as univocally : the distinction is one which affects the predi 

 cation that takes place in judgment rather than the concept (or 

 term) itself. Further light will be thrown upon this point by the 

 treatment of connotation and denotation of terms. 



28. UNIVERSAL OR GENERAL, AND INDIVIDUAL OR SINGULAR 

 TERMS : BASIS AND NATURE OF THIS DIVISION. Terms are 

 divided into Singular and General according as they can apply to 

 one or more than one object of thought. 



A Singular or Individual Term is one which can be applied in 



1 The division into single-worded and many-worded terms (22) is of minor im 

 portance from the point of view of logic. 



