more from Aristotle

Single Idea 18911

[catalogued under 15. Nature of Minds / C. Capacities of Minds / 5. Generalisation by mind]

Full Idea

According to Aristotle, the terms of a language form a finite hierarchy, where the higher terms are predicable of more things than are lower terms.

Gist of Idea

Linguistic terms form a hierarchy, with higher terms predicable of increasing numbers of things

Source

report of Aristotle (Prior Analytics [c.328 BCE]) by George Engelbretsen - Trees, Terms and Truth 3

Book Reference

'The Old New Logic', ed/tr. Oderberg,David S. [MIT 2005], p.35


A Reaction

I would be a bit cautious about placing something precisely in a hierarchy according to how many things it can be predicated of. It is a start, though, in trying to give a decent account of generality, which is a major concept in philosophy.