160 THE SCIENCE OF LOGIC. 



concept in question represents not a mere fiction of the thinker s 

 mind, but a reality existing in some sphere beyond that of his 

 present thought (54). 



In the other direction, the process of reasoning, by which we 

 infer one judgment from another, may indeed be consistent or in 

 consistent with itself, may or may not conform to the recognized 

 canons of inference, and may thus be formally valid or invalid, 

 but it cannot in itself be said to be true or false : * of the judg 

 ments alone which enter into it can we properly say that they 

 are true or false. 



80. THE TRUTH OF JUDGMENT is OBJECTIVE, UNIVERSAL, 

 AND IMMUTABLE. The judgment, therefore, differs from every 

 other mental process in this, that it claims to be true : it claims the 

 belief or assent of the mind to it as true. Now this claim will be 

 seen on a little reflection to imply of necessity a reference of the 

 whole content of the actual subjective or mental synthesis to 

 something beyond itself. A toothache, or a fit of anger, or a 

 strong emotion or desire, are simply subjective, conscious states, 

 which are neither true nor false, and which do not refer us to any 

 thing beyond themselves for verification : but the conscious 

 mental process of affirming or denying, of asserting, judging, 

 reveals itself as an interpretation 2 of something distinct from 

 itself, something to which an appeal can be made for the verifi 

 cation of the mental process. This &quot; something &quot; is the reality (in 

 the widest sense of the word), which the mind interprets, in and 

 by its act of judgment : the reference of the judgment to some 

 such sphere of reality be this the visible world, or the world 

 of mental states, or an invisible, spiritual world, or an imaginary, 

 fictitious world of our own mental creation (33) is called the 

 objective inference of the judgment ; and the conformity of the 

 mental representation resulting from the act of judgment, with 

 the originally presented 3 reality which it interprets, may be called 

 the objective validity or the truth of the judgment in question. 



This &quot; objective &quot; or &quot; truth &quot; aspect of the judgment is emphasized in 

 some modern definitions of the latter. &quot; JUDGMENT,&quot; says Mr. Bradley, 4 



1 Of course every inference involves the judgment that the antecedent is a 

 sufficient ground of the consequent, and, so far, may involve truth or falsity (cf. 148). 



2 Aristotle s treatise on Judgment is called riepl Epwvttas, i.e. De Interpretation . 



3 The sphere of reality referred to, must be, of course, originally presented to 

 consciousness in or through the operation of the external and internal senses ; the 

 perceptive or prcsentati-ve faculties (2, 3) or reached indirectly by the intellect 

 through such sense presentations. 



4 Apud MELLONE, Introd. Text-Book of Logic, p. 370. 



