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Full Idea
The syncategorematic word 'every' does not signify any fixed thing, but when added to 'man' it makes the term 'man' stand for all men actually.
Clarification
'Syncategorematic' words are almost meaningless linking words in sentences
Gist of Idea
The word 'every' only signifies when added to a term such as 'man', referring to all men
Source
William of Ockham (Summa totius logicae [1323], I.c.iv)
Book Ref
Ockham,William of: 'Ockham's Philosophical Writings', ed/tr. Boehner,P [Hackett 1990], p.51
A Reaction
Although quantifiers may have become a part of formal logic with Frege, their importance is seen from Aristotle onwards, and it is clearly a key part of William's understanding of logic.
| 16300 | Ockham had an early axiomatic account of truth [William of Ockham, by Halbach] |
| 15388 | Universals are single things, and only universal in what they signify [William of Ockham] |
| 9105 | Some concepts for propositions exist only in the mind, and in no language [William of Ockham] |
| 9106 | The word 'every' only signifies when added to a term such as 'man', referring to all men [William of Ockham] |
| 9113 | Just as unity is not a property of a single thing, so numbers are not properties of many things [William of Ockham] |
| 9107 | A proposition is true if its subject and predicate stand for the same thing [William of Ockham] |
| 9109 | If essence and existence were two things, one could exist without the other, which is impossible [William of Ockham] |
| 9110 | The words 'thing' and 'to be' assert the same idea, as a noun and as a verb [William of Ockham] |
| 9108 | From an impossibility anything follows [William of Ockham] |