The Semantics of John Stuart Mill

The original, Dutch version of this book served in 1979 as a doctoral disserta tion in philosophy at the Free University in Amsterdam. In this preface to the - slightly revised - English translation, I wish once again to express my gratitude to my supervisors, Prof. J. van der Hoeven of the Free University and Prof. G. Nuchelmans of the University of Leiden, for their excellent and stimulating support. Professor van der Hoeven was associated with this project from the outset. It was a privilege to benefit from his incisive commentaries, especially in those instances where the objective was to break through to more fundamental insights. I shall not lightly forget his friendly and heartening encouragement. I am equally grateful for my discussions with Professor Nuchelmans. I almost always tried to follow his advice, since it was based upon awesome expertness and erudition. I am happy to have found in the person of Herbert Donald Morton, Th.M., M.A., an able and enthusiastic translator. Drs. Gerben Groenewoud made the translations of a number of the Latin citations. I acknowledge permission from Routledge and Kegan Paul and the University of Toronto Press to quote from The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill. And I thank the Netherlands Organization for the Advancement of Pure Research (Z.W.O.) for fmancing this translation.

Inhalt
1 / The Classification of Names in a System of Logic.- 1.1 Names.- 1.2 The distinction between individual and general names.- 1.3 Abstract and concrete names.- 1.4 Connotative versus non-connotative names.- 1.5 The remaining distinctions of names.- 2 / Themes from the History of Logic.- 2.1 Mill's familiarity with the older logic.- 2.2 Some classifications of terms.- 2.3 The Manuductio ad Logicam of Philippus du Trieu.- 2.4 The ontological square.- 2.5 Paronymy.- 2.6 Connotative and absolute terms in scholastic logic.- 2.7 The identity of thing and essence.- 3 / Thinking in Intension and Extension.- 3.1 Abstraction and generalization in English empiricism.- 3.2 The Port-Royal logic.- 3.3 Extensionintension (comprehension), and denotationconnotation.- 3.4 Extension.- 3.5 Intension.- 3.6 Formal characterization of the diverse notions of extension and intension.- 3.7 The inverse relation between intension and extension.- 3.8 A problematical presupposition in the analysis of intensions.- 4 / From Predicables to Real Kinds.- 4.1 The incipience of the theory of denotation and connotation in 'Whately's Elements of Logic'.- 4.2 Predicating and signifying in Whately.- 4.3 The theory of the predicables in 'Whately's Elements of Logic'.- 4.4 The revised version of the predicables in 'The Early Draft of the Logic'.- 4.5 Real kinds.- 4.6 Abstract terms.- 4.7 James Mill's Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind.- 4.8 Connotation revisited.- 5 / Theories of the Copula.- 5.1 Views of the copula.- 5.2 The semantic scheme for terms.- 5.3 Some illustrations.- 5.4 Limitations of the diverse theories.- 5.5 The copula as identity.- 5.6 Syntactic and semantic analysis of Hobbes's theory of predication.- 6 / The Semantics of Propositions.- 6.1 Ambiguity of thecopula.- 6.2 The analysis of S-P propositions as meaning analysis.- 6.3 Dictum de omni and nota notae est nota rei ipsius.- 6.4 The connotation of a term as constitutive for its denotation.- 6.5 The syllogism a petitio principii?.- 6.6 The status of deduction.- 6.7 Abstract propositions.- 6.8 Existential import.- 6.9 Real and verbal propositions.- 6.10 Definitions.- 6.11 Resistance to the logic of identity.- 7 / Meaning.- 7.1 Some interpretations of Mill's theory of meaning.- 7.2 Meaning and the distinction between connotative and non-connotative terms.- 7.3 Meaning and ideas.- 7.4 Proper names.- 7.5 Philosophical language.- 8 / Semantics and Metaphysics.- 8.1 Common sense ontology.- 8.2 Relativity of knowledge.- 8.3 Ontology.- 8.4 Resemblance: epistemological aspects of the problem of universals.- 8.5 Logic and metaphysics.- 9 / Appraisal.- 9.1 Connotative terms and the deformation of the ontological square.- 9.2 The legacy of the past: terms.- 9.3 Signs of a new logical paradigm: propositions.- 9.4 Names, propositions, and facts.- 9.5 Meaning, fixing the reference, and rigid designators.- Appendix 1 / Some biographical notes.- Appendix 2 / Du Trieu's doctrine of supposition.- Appendix 3 / Predication and supposition.- List of symbols and abbreviations of technical terms.- Notes.- Index of Names.- Index of Subjects.