Note 265 — Chapter VIII

We may briefly discuss in a note one or two objections to this view which have not yet been explicitly considered.

(а) Mill argues that a synthetical proposition necessarily implies “the real existence of the subject, because in the case of a non-existent subject there is nothing for the proposition to assert” (Logic, i. 6, § 2). In answer to this it is sufficient to point out that a non-existent thing will be described as possessing attributes which are separately attributes of existing things, although that particular combination of them may not anywhere be found, and if we know (as we may do) that certain of these attributes are always accompanied by other attributes we may predicate the latter of the non-existent thing, thereby obtaining a real proposition which does not involve the actual existence of its subject. As an argument ad hominem it may further be pointed out that Mill inclines to deny the existence of perfect straight lines or perfect circles. Would he therefore affirm that we can make no real assertions about such things?

(b) Mr Welton repeats several times that a proposition which relates to a non-existent subject must be a mere jumble of words, a predication in appearance only. “That the meaning of a universal proposition can be expressed as a denial is true, but this is not its primary import. And this denial itself must rest upon what the proposition affirms. Unless SaP implies the existence of S, and asserts that it possesses P, we have no data for denying the existence of SPʹ. For if S is non-existent the denial that it is non-P can have no intelligible meaning” (Logic, p. 241). The examples which we have already given are sufficient to dispose of this objection; but it may be worth while to add a further argument. According to Mr Welton, an E proposition implies the existence of its subject but not of its predicate. We cannot then infer PeS from SeP because we have no assurance of the existence of P. But in accordance with the position taken by Mr Welton, we ought to go further and say that PeS must be a mere jumble of words unless we are assured of the existence of P. It is impossible, however, to regard PeS as a mere unmeaning jumble of words, a predication in appearance only, when SeP is a significant and true proposition. PeS may be false, or it may be an unnatural form of statement, but it cannot be meaningless if SeP has a meaning. Take, for example, the propositions—No woman is now hanged for theft in England, No person now hanged for theft in England is a woman. The second of these propositions is false if it is taken to imply that there are at the present time persons who are hanged for theft in England, but how it can possibly be regarded as meaningless I cannot understand.

(c) Miss Jones argues that if some carries with it an implication of existence, when used with a subject-term, it must do so equally when used with a predicate-term; but the predicate of an A proposition being undistributed is practically qualified by some ; hence, if Some S is P implies the existence of S and therefore of P, All S is P must imply the existence of P and therefore of S. In reply to this argument it may be pointed out, first, that a distinction may fairly be drawn without any risk of confusion between a term explicitly quantified by the word some and a term which we can shew to be undistributed but which is not explicitly quantified at all; and, secondly, that the position which we have taken is based upon a consideration of the import of propositions as a whole, not upon the force of signs of quantity considered in the abstract. The irrelevancy of the argument will be apparent if it is taken in connexion with the reasons which we have urged for holding that particulars should be interpreted as implying the existence of their subjects.