Note 41 — Chapter II

It has been said that while the extension of a term is capable of quantitative measurement, the same is not equally true of intension. “The parts of extension may be counted, but it is inept to count the parts in intension. For they are not external to each other, and they form a whole such as cannot be divided into units except by the most arbitrary dilaceration. And if it were so divided, all its parts would vary in value, and there would be no reason to expect that ten of them (that is, ten attributes) should have twice the amount or value of five” (Bosanquet, Logic, I. p. 59). There is some force in this, and it is decisive against interpreting inverse variation in the present connexion in any strict numerical sense. But, at the same time, no error is committed and no difficulty of interpretation arises, if we content ourselves with speaking merely of the enlargement or restriction of the intension of a term. There can be no doubt that intension is increased when we pass from animal to man, or from man to negro; or again when we pass from triangle to isosceles triangle, or from isosceles triangle to right-angled isosceles triangle.