CHAPTER III. 

 DEFINITION. 



49. DEFINITION GIVES DISTINCTNESS TO OUR IDEAS AND 

 LEADS TO THE AXIOMS OR PRINCIPLES OF THE SCIENCES. 

 In the preceding chapter we examined the various relations that 

 may obtain between our concepts in the mental act of judgment, 

 and, consequently, between the terms of a logical proposition. 

 Since all human knowledge is or may be embodied in judgments, 

 it is important that the terms of this comparison be in all cases 

 as clear and definite as possible. Hence the mental processes 

 by which we seek, while advancing in knowledge, to make both 

 the application and the implication of our concepts clear and 

 distinct, need to be carefully examined and analysed. The 

 study of the different predicables has prepared us for this task. 



The mention of an entirely strange term or name brings 

 before the mind no concept of any object beyond the term itself: 

 it leaves the mind in the dark as to the object referred to : the 

 concept of the objecc if the concept may be said to exist at all 

 is totally obscure. Or again, it may of itself, or through some 

 other experience, bring into the mind a vague suspicion of the 

 class of object referred to, but not a sufficiently clear idea to en 

 able us to distinguish the object or class of objects denoted, from 

 other objects or classes of objects. The concept is said to be 

 obscure as long as its application is doubtful ; it is clear when the 

 application is certain. A concept may, however, be clear in the 

 sense that it enables us to distinguish the objects it denotes from 

 other objects, without at the same time bringing distinctly before 

 our minds the various attributes it implies ; without, therefore, 

 giving us more than a vague, indistinct knowledge of the nature 

 of the objects denoted. Such an idea, though clear, is said to be 

 indistinct or confused. If, on the contrary, it brings distinctly 

 before our minds the attributes which constitute the nature of 

 the object, then the idea is not only clear but distinct. A child s 



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