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 PHILOSOPHY - A Comprehensive Study
 

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INSTRUMENTS OF THINKING
Thinking calls for the assistance of percepts, images, concepts, signs and formulate, of which it make abundant use. These are the essential instruments of thinking:

(1)PERCEPTS- Percepts are important factors in thinking, affording material to it. They also stimulate thinking. Suppose we have seen our friend-doing something. The perception well set us thinking in order to discover ways and means of preventing our friend from this bad act.
Many other percepts will assist in this thinking. We will, with the help of memory, try to recall the perceptions of the past behaviour of our friend in order to see the cause which may have set him on his wrong path of life, in the hope of discovering ways and means which may be acted to cure him.

(2) IMAGES - Image too, is a kind of symbol which includes the faint recollection of perceptions. Past experiences of an individual move around in his mind in the form of images. Images may be recalled through a conscious effort but they also flash on the mind involuntarily. Many experiments have indicated that images are not quite as essential to thinking as they were previously considered to be, The use of images in thinking depend in no small measure upon the method of thinking, which the individual employs some people use other symbols in they thinking instead of images. It is not essential that a singer must have auditory images in order to be good. Thinking in philosophy and political science makes better use of words than images. Similarly subjects like arithmetic make every infrequent use of images. Some times a person experiences difficulty in making the other person comprehend his thought just because they differ in their ways of thinking.

(3)CONCEPTS -Concepts are the abstract forms of past experiences. Humanity is the trait of the human species, found equally in all human beings. Concept is a general idea and, as the example makes clear, it is founded upon perception. The concept of humanity cannot be formed without the perception of human being, because humanity is the common element in the perception of human beings. An abstraction of humanity from human being is necessary in order to proceed from perception to concept. Concept, formed with the help of abstraction is mental. Reasoning cannot be done without concepts, which are both abstract and general.
These are the indispensable elements of thinking. Classification of objects is done on the basis of concepts, while it differentiates between individuals of the same class. Conceptual thinking takes less time because it facilitates the thinking of innumerable things by a few concepts. Thus one concept is the symbol of many objects. But all concepts are not equally extensive. For example, creature is more comprehensive than human beings which in its turn, is more comprehensive than Indians. Indians are included in human beings who are included in creatures.

(4) SYMBOLS - Concepts are made use of in thinking mainly with the help of symbols, which are the representatives of general thoughts. Whenever our thoughts turn to human beings,the human figure, which occupies our mind is a general figure, not that of any specific person. The image of a dog is a symbol of dogs in general. One or its numerical equivalents are symbols of a whistle may be the symbols of unity while two or 2 symbolises dualism. The
sound of a whistle may be the symbol of a policeman or a watchman. The noise of the fire engine is the symbol of fire. Thus the use of symbols in thinking saves time and energy.

Terms and their classification
According to Aristotle, all propositions affirm or deny something. That about which an affirmation or denial is made is the subject term and that which an asserted of the subject is predicated term. The subject and the predicate are connected with each other by a copula, which always is some part of the verb "to be". Let us now consider each element:

(1) Subject
- Consider the proposition "Man is moral". Here mortality is being affirmed about man and, therefore man is the subject of his proposition. The subject may be one word or many. In the above example to has one word only; but in the proposition 'Alexander" the I great, was pupil of Aristotle', the subject is made of three words.

(2) Predicate - In the proposition 'Man is mortal', mortality is asserted about man and man is the subject therefore, mortal is the predicate Again, the predicate term may consist of single word, as in the above example, or it may have many words. In our second example "pupil of Aristotle" is the predicate an it consists of three words.

(3)Copula - The verb "is" and its conjugated serve as connect in words between subject and predicate, and this connecting word is called copula of the proposition. The word copula is derived from the copule, which means to join.


Words and Terms
All terms are words but every word cannot become a term in a proposition, From the viewpoint of logic, the words are divided into three categories, namely, Categorematic, Syncategorematic and Acategorematic. -"The categorematic words are those which by themselves can become the terms of a proposition.


1. The example of categorematic words are Ram, Peter, intelligent etc.
2. The syncategorematic words cannot by themselves terms but they become terms in conjuction with other words. For instance 'and' alone cannot be a
term but in "Ram and Peter are friends", 'and' has become a term.
3. The acategorematic words like Ah and'bh can never be terms.

(1)Simple or Composite terms " The simple terms consist of a single word only whereas the composite terms consist of two or more words, 'man', 'boy' 'hence' 'intellectuals' etc. are illustrations of single terms, and 'an honest man', 'a swift horse', 'a good boy' etc. are illustrations of composite terms.

(2) Singular or General Terms - A term which denotes or stands for a single individual or object is^ singular term whereas a term denoting a class is a general term. For example 'Mount Everest' 'Ram' 'Delhi' etc are cases of the former 'Philosopher' Book 'mountain' etc.are examples of the latter. Singular terms have been divided into two categories:

(a) Significant Singular Terms - Such a term not only stands for a single thing but mentions a trait peculiar to it not be found to in any other thing. For example, 'Higher pack of the world'. 'longest river', 'best cricketer of century' each stand for one thing only and its peculair trait is unique to it.

(b) Proper names - These are known as non-significant singular terms also. Ram, Calcutta, London, Alfread Kinsey etc. Stand for any thing but do not name traits peculiar to them.

(3) Collective or Non collective Terms - 'Arm/, 'liberty', 'Crowd' 'audience', 'club' etc, are terms which refer to collection of things. Army refers to a large collection of soldiers and officers, audience refers to a group of persons gathered to listen to something, club refers to group having some common purpose. However a club member or a soldier are obviously non collective terms.

(4) Concrete or Abstract Terms - The concrete terms are names of things such as books, balls etc. Whereas abstract terms are names of qualities. Sometime qualities and things are combined together, for example in literary book, magic balls etc. Abstract terms may be singular to general.

(5) Positive, Negative or Privative Terms - Positive terms indicate the presence of a quality such as 'joy', sorrow", etc. While negative terms indicate absence of quality, e.g., 'unmanly, immoral' etc. privative terms are similar to negative in so far as they indicate absence of a quality but this absence of a quality is not natural. For example if we say man is blind, the term blind shows that be lacks eye sight but also shows that man ordinarily is not blind, therefore 'blind' indicate privation or deprivation of some trait.

A term can be understood either by considering the class of objects (a class may have one member) to which it applies by the set of characteristics which uniquely determine.
For example, the term 'man' be understood by pointing out to Ram, Shyam etc. who are men or may be understood to mean that any one who is a rational animal is a man. The class of objects to which a term applies is known as the denotation of the term and the set of characteristics which determine it is known as connotation of the term.

Denotation
Denotation of a term is also known by another name, that is extension. As is clear from the word extension, denotation or extension of a term refers to extent or limit covered by a term. For instance the term 'man' applies to all members of mankind but the term 'animal' applies to members of mankind and besides also to members of animal kingdom. Therefore the term 'animal' has wider extension or application that the term 'man', while the term 'Scholar* has even less extension than man.

Connotation
It is also known as by another name intension. By connotation or intension we mean the idea or characteristics which enable anyone to apply a particular term to some object. For instance we say that this is a book because by book we understand a printed material covering some subject, and whatever answers to this description is also called book; therefore the intension or connotation of a term is equivalent to its description. However not everybody has the same description or set properties in mind with regard to a particular object. This is why we distinguish between various meanings of the term intension, or connotation. There are three such kinds:

1. Subjective Intension, 2. Objective Intension and 3. Conventional Intension.

The term 'thief may suggest to someone's minds a person who breaks into houses at night while some other person may understand by it anyone who steps else's propserty. Obviously various people will have different ideas about the same thing depending upon their mental and emotional framework. The meaning which is peculiar to everybody is called subjective Intension of the term. Secondly, by cof<notation or intension we may intend or mean the properties belonging to a thing. This is known as Objective Intension or Comprehension. Thirdly, by connotation we can mean the essential properties of a thing which distinguish it from other and this is Conventional intension. This is roughly equivalent to definition of a term and ordinarily we have this meaning in when we use the term connotation.

Relation between Denotation and Connotation
It is usually believed that inverse relationship holds between connotation and denotation so that increase in one leads to decrease in the other. This relation is known as inverse relation between connotation and denotation. This relation operates in the following four ways;

1. An increase in the denotation results in decrease in the connotation. The term 'rational animal' applies to all men. but the term 'animal' applies to men
as well as dogs, cats etc. and had, therefore wider denotation. But as we see, its connotation is less than that of, 'rational animal' because rational animal must have both rationality and animality while animality alone is sufficient for the term 'animals'.

2. A decrease in denotation leads to increase in connotation but as we know, scholar is a man who studies widely. Accordingly, the term 'scholar' has
greater connotation-

3. An increase in connotation results in decrease in denotation if we specify the kind of scholar and say a scholar of British constitution the term will apply to fewer persons than the term scholar, but obviously a British History scholar has more connotation.

4. Connotation results in decrease in denotation-

The term British Citizen has less connotation than the term citizen because the term citizen has the property of "being resident of a country", whereas British citizen has another property in addition to above, namely "being British". Therefore, the connotation of former is more than that of the latter, but, obviously the denotation of the latter is more.

The Rules Governing Inverse Relation Between Connotation and Denotation
1. Change in Connotation or Denotation results in a New Term-
Any change in a term either by specifying it further or by the removing some specifying gives us a new term. For example, if we add the quality of honesty and hard work to man, we get honest hard working man, and this is a new term. Therefore, by changing connotation of a man; we get a new term. Similarly, if we remove 'honest or 'hardworking' from honest hardworking man, we get either honest man or hardworking man and this is a
new term.

2- The rule of inverse relation applies only if there is change in the term- If we add to the term man 'biped', 'relation', etc. There is no change, in the term.
because the term 'man', 'biped man', 'rational man' are same and there is no change in the connotation or denotation of the term man.
3. The inverse relation does not operate in mathematical proportion-
The extent to which change in qualities of a term results may be very small or very great, there is no question of proportion here. For instance, if we add 'learned' to the term 'philosopher' the change in the extent of 'learned philosopher* and "philosopher", is nominal, but if we add "first" to the above term, the new term can apply only to a single philosopher.

4. Change in Connotation or Denotation may not increase our knowledge- It is not necessary that if we learn some more characteristics of a thing, our
knowledge increases. For example, by saying that a play field is a hockey play .field, we do not know more.

WHAT IS SYLLOGISM?

Two type of inferences have been distinguished: the immediate and the mediate. While the immediate inference is based on one proposition only, the mediate has two propositions as its basis. The mediate inference is also known as syllogism, the name is due to Aristotle

A syllogism is defined as an arguement having three propostions, which contain between them three and only three terms, The two of these are premises and third is the conclusion. As a matter of fact, syllogism is a relation of two terms to a third term which helps discovery of some relation between the two. An example would make this clear; kissing in public is tolerated in permissive societies; USA is premissive society; therefore kissing in public is permitted in USA. Here "kissing' and 'USA' have some relation with 'permissive society* and in the conclusion we find kissing and USA related because of this common relation. Since it is through some common term that we reach the conclusion, syllogism, therefore, is a mediate inference.

ANALYSIS OF SYLLOGISM
A syllogism, as defined above, has^three propositions and three terms only. Two of the propositions are premises (one major and one minor) and the third one is the conclusion. Of terms, the premise counting the major term is the major premise. The premise containing minor term similarly is the minor premise. The term which occurs in both the premises is middle term. The determination of major and minor terms can easily be done by looking at the  conclusion, because the predicate of conclusion is the major term and the subject of the conclusion, minor. It is, therefore, not necessary that the premises occurring first must be the major premise, for instance, "The cinema is demoralising: and whatever is demortalising must be shunned", therefore, cinema must be shunned". In this argument minor premise comes first. In syllogism, like any deductive argument minor premise comes first. In syllogism, like any deductive argument, the conclusion must not exceed in extent to the extent of premises, and the truth of the conclusion depends upon both the premises being true.

KINDS OF SYLLOGISM
The syllogism are broadly of two types, pure and mixed. In turn each has three sub-divisions;
Pure syllogism : Pure Categorical; Pure Hypothetical and Pure Disjunctive syllogism.
Mixed syllogisms : Hypothetical Categorical; Disjunctive Categorical and Dilemma

RULES OF VALIDITY OF SYLLOGISM
Logicians have been able to discover certain rules necessary for the validity of syllogism. These are as follows:

1. Three terms - A syllogism must have three and only three terms no less no more. If there two terms only inference can be immediate and not mediate. If there are four, the fallacy or four terms occurs. An argument like Ram is my friend. Mohan is Ram's friend, therefore Mohan is my friend, is invalid because it has four terms, viz, Ram, Mohan my friend and Mohan's friend. Secondly, there should be no ambiguous use of terms that is the meaning of a term should not change within the argument Violation of this rule leads to three kinds of fallacies;

(A) AMBIGUOUS MINOR
Vice is to be condemned,
Ram is working with vice.
Ram is to be condemned.
'Vice' in minor means a tool and not evil as in the major.

(B) AMBIGUOUS MIDDLE
Blue is a colour. -
Sky is blue.
Sky is a colour.

This is apparently false because white it is given that no Indians are ungrateful, this does not guarantee that no non-Indians are ungrateful, but the class of religious persons includes Indians as well as non- Indians.

4. If both the premises are negative, no conclusion follows-In case both premises are denials of certain attributes to subject terms, no connexion is established between major and minor terms through middle term. For example of one says A is not B and B is not C, we can not know whether A is C or is not C, because if, for example, Ram and Shyam are stupid . from this we cannot infer anything other than what is already asserted in propositions.

5. If one premise is negative, the conclusion is negative- In case one premise is negative, the other will be affirmative (this is entailed by Rule 5). Therefore the affirmative major minor will include or will be included by the middle, and the negative major or minor will exclude or be excluded by the middle, hence, conclusion will be negative. For example, if A is B and A is not C, the obvious conclusion is that A is not C.

6. From both affirmative premises, the conclusion will be affirmative- This is too obvious to need any explanation.

7. Two particular premises yield no conclusion-Two particular premises can either be II, 01 or 00. 00 is excluded by rule. 5, since both are negative. II is excluded by the Rule 3, because I proposition does not distribute either of its terms. In 10 or 01, the conclusion will be negative by Rule 6, and this negative conclusion will distribute the predicate, which is the major term. This will leave middle term undistributed.

8. If one of the premises is particular, the conclusion will also distributed therefore no term can be distributed in conclusion, because the number of distributed term had to be one less, hence conclusion must be particular. And if particular premise is negative, the conclusion will be negative. Now negative universal conclusion will distribute both the terms, and this will be equal to the number of distributed terms in the premises, because one premise is negative, the other has to be affirmative. Affirmative distributes one term only, and negative particular also distributes one term only. Now if conclusion is
negative universal both major and minor terms must be distributed and this will give rise to the fallacy of undistributed middle,

9- If the major premise is particular and the minor negative no conclusion follows-since the conclusion will be negative by Rule 5, and the predicate will be distributed major terms must terms must be distributed, but this will not be so if the major premise is I type.

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