DIVISIONS OF CONCEPTS AND TERMS. 45 



the same sense to only one definite, individual thing. Singular 

 terms are of two kinds : (i) Significant Singular Terms, and (2) 

 Non-significant Singular Terms, or Proper Names. A General or 

 Universal or Common Term, or Class Name, is one which can be 

 applied in the same sense to each of an indefinite number of indivi 

 dual things : as man, horse, book, Centaur, Emperor of Ireland, 

 triangle. 



The general term or class name is the verbal equivalent of 

 the Universal Concept the concept which signifies &quot;something 

 common to many &quot; : unum commune pluribus (4). It is, there 

 fore, applied to each and every member of a class because it sig 

 nifies some attribute or attributes which they possess in common 

 and in virtue of which the common name is given to them. There 

 need be no actually existing object to which the name applies ; or 

 there may be only one such ; but provided there may be conceived 

 an indefinite multitude to which the name can apply, the latter is 

 general ; whereas the singular term is not even potentially applic 

 able to more than the one individual. A good test for deciding 

 whether a term is general or singular is to see whether it will take 

 &quot; all&quot; or some &quot; before it ; for if it is a class name, statements 

 may be made about all or some members of the class. 



All general terms may be changed into Significant Singular 

 Terms by prefixing some individualizing word or phrase by which 

 the term will be made to identify or point out some one individual 

 thing : x book this book ; king the present king ; man the first 

 man ; universe the material universe. Sometimes the definite 

 article alone will suffice, in a known context, to make a term 

 individual, as &quot; Let us walk in the garden &quot; ; sometimes it leaves 

 the term general, as &quot; The horse is a beast of burden &quot;. It is in 

 fact mainly by using general terms with such limiting epithets 

 that we refer to individual objects. It is the only way we can refer 

 to the vast majority of individual objects, which have no proper 

 names ; and even the very limited classes of objects which receive 

 proper names persons and places : some domestic animals : more 

 rarely, inanimate objects, such as the principal stars are often 

 referred to by such individualized general terms instead of their 

 proper names. These individual terms are described as significant 

 because they signify not merely the attributes signified by the cor 

 responding general term but the individualizing attributes of the 

 individual thing in addition. 



1 C/. VENN, Empirical Logic, pp. 161 sqq. 



