DIVISIONS OF CONCEPTS AND TERMS. 65 



not reveal it in their form. Both have positive connotations 

 and stand on equal and independent footings. They always 

 possess a certain amount of connotation in common that portion, 

 namely, which indicates their common sphere of denotation. 1 In 

 addition to this, each includes an attribute (or group of attributes) 

 peculiar to itself and such that every individual denoted by the 

 terms must possess one or other of these attributes (or groups) 

 while no individual can possess both. 



A few examples will illustrate this. &quot; Male &quot; and &quot; female &quot; 

 are such a pair of material contradictories, possessing in common 

 the connotation which fixes their sphere of denotation as that of 

 &quot; living organisms with differentiation of sex &quot; ; &quot; matter &quot; and 

 &quot;spirit&quot; possessing the common connotation of &quot;substance&quot;; 

 &quot; substance&quot; and &quot;accident,&quot; possessing the common connotation 

 of &quot;being&quot; ; &quot; Irish&quot; and &quot; foreign,&quot; for the sphere of &quot; material 

 products&quot;; &quot;Irish&quot; and &quot;alien,&quot; for the sphere of &quot;human 

 beings &quot;. We may observe that as the common portion of the 

 connotation increases and the sphere of application grows narrower, 

 the possible numbers of such material contradictories within this 

 narrower sphere increase. For, it is easier to find a pair of 

 positive attributes which divide a smaller class, than a pair which 

 divide a larger class, into two mutually exclusive sub-classes. 



39. FORMAL CONTRADICTORIES : POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE 

 TERMS. While a positive term may be defined as one which im 

 plies the presence of an attribute or group of attributes , a negative 

 term is one which merely implies the absence of (all or some of) 

 the attributes connoted by the positive term^ while it implies the 

 presence of no attributes whatsoever. It is formed from the posi 

 tive term by prefixing not or non to the latter ; it is called the 

 formal contradictory of the latter. The opposition between a posi 

 tive and a negative term man and not-man, holy and not-holy, 

 etc. is called formal contradiction because it can be learned from 

 the mere form of each pair of such terms, independently of their 

 meaning altogether. 



Now, while both members of a pair of material contradictories, e.g. &quot; male &quot; 

 and &quot;female,&quot; \izvtpositive connotation, one member of a pair of formal 

 contradictories the purely negative term has no positive connotation at all. 

 And as to denotation, while the sphere exhausted by a pair of material 



1 The context often comes to the aid of their common connotation in determin 

 ing the common Universe of Discourse within which they are meant to be actually 

 applied (33). 



VOL. I. 5 



