DEFINITION. 185 



whiteness." Let us see, however, whether the ana- 

 lysis of the meaning of the name, that is, the break- 

 ing 1 down of that meaning into separate parts, admits 

 of being carried farther. Without at present deciding 

 this question as to the word white, it is obvious that 

 in the case of rational some further explanation may 

 be given of its meaning than is contained in the 

 proposition, " Rational is that which possesses the 

 attribute of reason;" since the attribute reason itself 

 admits of being defined. And here we must turn our 

 attention to the definitions of attributes, or rather of 

 the names of attributes, that is, of abstract names. 



In regard to such names of attributes as are conno- 

 tative, and express attributes of those attributes, there 

 is no difficulty : like other connotative names, they are 

 defined by declaring their connotation. Thus, the word 

 fault may be defined, " a quality productive of evil or 

 inconvenience." Sometimes, again, the attribute to 

 be defined is not one attribute, but an union of 

 several : we have only, therefore, to put together the 

 names of all the attributes taken separately, and we ob- 

 tain the definition of the names which belong to them 

 all taken together ; a definition which will correspond 

 exactly to that of the corresponding concrete name. 

 For, as we define a concrete name by enumerating the 

 attributes which it connotes, and as the attributes con- 

 noted by a concrete name form the entire signification 

 of the corresponding abstract one, the same enumera- 

 tion will serve for the definition of both. Thus, if the 

 definition of a human being be this, " A being, corpo- 

 real, animated, rational, and shaped so and so," the 

 definition of humanity will be, corporeity and animal 

 life, combined with rationality, and with such and such 

 a shape. 



When, on the other hand, the abstract name does 



