The student's handbook, synoptical and explanatory of Mr. J.S. Mill's System of logic;

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1909. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... BOOK III. INDUCTION. CHAPTER I. Preliminary Observations. A general Proposition is one in which a Predicate is affirmed or denied of an actually or potentially indefinite number of individuals, viz., all existing or capable of existing in present, past, or future, which possess the attributes connoted by the subject-name. Or, it is One which asserts that one phenomenon always accompanies i.e., is a mark of) another phenomenon. We must not, therefore, be misled by the mere verbal form of a Proposition. Thus, "All continents possess large rivers " is not a true logical general Proposition, but only a bundle of four singular Propositions, viz., Europe possesses large rivers, Asia, &c., Africa, &c., America, &c. We cannot properly say attributes connoted by "continent" are marks of attribute "possessing large rivers;" the two only happen to be associated in the only cases of which we have knowledge, but if a new continent were raised, say from the bottom of Pacific Ocean, we have no assurance that it would contain large rivers. On the other hand, "God is a being superior to man," is a general Proposition, as much to a Christian as to a polytheist, since it means--whenever and wherever we meet the attributes connoted by "God," there we shall meet attribute "superiority to man." The distinction between a Proposition really general and one only general in its form, will easily be made if it be remembered that a true general Proposition asserts that one phenomenon is a mark of another phenomenon--and thus such a Proposition gives us a power of predicting that when or where we meet the former phenomenon we shall also meet with the latter. Thus, though we happen to be correct in saying, "All the apostles were Jews," we cannot predict from this that if an apostle were at a...