MS 468-471 (1903) - Lowell Lecture V

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The description ‘the inhabitants of Boston’ is a proper name. It applies to but a single individual object, the whole of all the inhabitants of Boston. This whole is what I call a Sam is not exactly a gath; and it is important to get a distinct idea of the difference. Just as the molecules that compose a man's body are continually changing by the loss of some and the gain of others, while there remains the same man, so the population of Boston is ever changing, yet remains the same individual whole. I propose to say it is the same sam. But it does not remain the same gath. At each instant it is identical with a gath. Always there is a gath in the existence of which consists the existence of the sam of the

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inhabitants of Boston. Were the city to be devastated and not one inhabitant left, still, as long as it remained Boston, the ‘sam, or sum total, of the inhabitants of Boston’ would have a being, although it would under those circumstances have ceased to exist. It would continue to be, since the description would retain its meaning. The essence of the sam would remain, although its existence had departed. But as for the gath, since it has no other being than existence, and its existence consists in the existence of its members; and since under those circumstances no members would exist, the gath would altogether cease to be. It is important to

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have this distinction clearly in mind. I do not mean to say that [it] is usually important to hold this distinction clear in regard to any collection that we may happen to speak of; but I mean that for certain purposes it is indispensibly necessary. Whatever sam there may be to whose members, and to them alone, any sign applies, to is called the breadth of the sign. This word breadth, originating with the Greek commentators of Aristotle, has passed into our vernacular. We speak of a man of broad culture. That means culture in many fields. Breadth of mind is the character of a mind that takes many things into account. If a man has broad and deep learning, the breadth consists in how many different subjects he is acquainted with, and the depth in how much he knows about whatever subject he is acquainted with. Now the breadth of a descriptive appellation has an essence, or Imputed Firstness, which is the signification, or Depth, of the

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appellation. Take the word phenix. No such thing exists. One naturally says that the name has no breadth. That, however, is not strictly correct. We should say its breadth is nothing. That breadth is precisely what I mean by a sam. Therefore I define a sam as an ens rationis having two grades of being, its essence, which is the being of a definite quality imputed to the sam, and its existence which is the existence of whatever subject may exist that possesses that quality. A gath, on the other hand is a subject having only one

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mode of being which is the compound of the existence of subjects called the members of the gath.

You may remark that a sam is thus defined without any reference at all to a gath. I repeat the definition, so that you may observe this:

A sam is an ens rationis whose essence is the being of a definite quality (imputed to the sam) and whose existence is the existence of whatever subject there may be possessing that quality.

On the other hand, it is impossible to define a gath without reference to a sam. For when I say that a gath is a subject whose only mode of being is the compounded existence

Last edit about 6 years ago by gnox
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