KNOWLEDGE BY ACQUAINTANCE 215 



know that there is one object, and no more, having a 

 certain property ; and it will generally be implied that 

 we do not have knowledge of the same object by ac- 

 quaintance. We know that the man with the iron mask 

 existed, and many propositions are known about him ; 

 but we do not know who he was. We know that the 

 candidate who gets most votes will be elected, and in this 

 case we are very likely also acquainted (in the only sense 

 in which one can be acquainted with some one else) with 

 the man who is, in fact, the candidate who will get most 

 votes, but we do not know which of the candidates he is, 

 i.e. we do not know any proposition of the form " A is 

 the candidate who will get most votes " where A is one 

 of the candidates by name. We shall say that we have 

 " merely descriptive knowledge " of the so-and-so when, 

 although we know that the so-and-so exists, and although 

 we may possibly be acquainted with the object which is, 

 in fact, the so-and-so, yet we do not know any pro- 

 position " a is the so-and-so," where a is something with 

 which we are acquainted. 



When we say " the so-and-so exists," we mean that 

 there is just one object which is the so-and-so. The pro- 

 position " a is the so-and-so " means that a has the 

 property so-and-so, and nothing else has. " Sir Joseph 

 Larmor is the Unionist candidate " means " Sir Joseph 

 Larmor is a Unionist candidate, and no one else is." 

 " The Unionist candidate exists " means " some one is a 

 Unionist candidate, and no one else is." Thus, when we 

 are acquainted with an object which we know to be the 

 so-and-so, we know that the so-and-so exists, but we may 

 know that the so-and-so exists when we are not acquainted 

 with any object which we know to be the so-and-so, and 

 even when we are not acquainted with any object which, in 

 fact, is the so-and-so. 



