DEFINITION. 183 



" John Thomson " to say he is <c the son of General 

 Thomson;" for the name John Thomson does not 

 express this. Neither is it any definition of " John 

 Thomson " to say he is " the man now crossing the 

 street." These propositions may serve to make 

 known who is the particular man to whom the name 

 belongs ; but that may be done still more unambi- 

 guously by pointing to him, which, however, has not 

 usually been esteemed one of the modes of definition. 



In the case of connotative names-, the meaning, as 

 has been so often observed, is the connotation ; and 

 the definition of a connotative name, is the proposition 

 which declares its connotation. This may be done 

 either directly or indirectly. The direct mode would 

 be by a proposition in this form: " Man " (or what- 

 soever the word may be) " is a name connoting such 

 and such attributes," or "is a name which, when 

 predicated of anything, signifies the possession of such 

 and such attributes by that thing." Or thus : Man 

 is everything which possesses such and such attri- 

 butes : Man is everything which possesses corporeity, 

 organization, life, rationality, and a form resembling 

 that of the descendants of Adam. 



This form of definition is the most precise and 

 least equivocal of any; but it is not brief enough, and 

 is besides too technical and pedantic for common 

 discourse. The more usual mode of declaring the 

 connotation of a name, is to predicate of it another 

 name or names of known signification, which connote 

 the same aggregation of attributes. This may be 

 done either by predicating of the name intended to be 

 defined, another connotative name exactly synony- 

 mous, as, " Man is a human being," which is not 

 commonly accounted a definition at all; or by pre- 

 dicating two or more connotative names, which make 



