The Judgment Itself
The mind's second operation: comparing two ideas and pronouncing their agreement or disagreement. Description, definition, and the three elements of judgment.
Judgment is the mind's second operation: comparing two ideas and pronouncing their agreement or disagreement in Comprehension. When agreement is enunciated the judgment is affirmative; when disagreement, negative. The idea enunciated of another (its subject) is the predicate; judgment is the pronouncement that a subject-idea is or is not contained in the Extension of a predicate-idea as an inferior — illustrated by overlapping circles for 'man' and 'animal.' Three elements enter into every judgment: two ideas in the mind, their comparison, and the mind's pronouncement on their agreement or disagreement — the first two together form the material element, the last the formal element (judgment proper). Sense-judgments, elicited even by brutes or without intellectual advertence, lie outside the scope of Dialectics, which treats only of intellectual judgments made upon ideas.
Book Second — The Judgment
This Book discusses the second operation of the mind, viz., Judgment. It describes, defines and classifies the Judgment. It then considers the Judgment as expressed in the Proposition.
The Book is therefore divided into two Chapters, as follows:
- Chapter I. The Judgment Itself
- Chapter II. The Judgment Expressed
Chapter I — The Judgment Itself
a) Description b) Definition c) Elements
This Chapter describes and defines the second mental operation, viz., the Judgment, and analyzes it in order to study its constituent elements.
The Chapter is not divided into Articles.
a) Description of the Judgment
The mind not only forms ideas; it also compares one idea with another and notices and enunciates their relation as agreement or disagreement. This operation of the mind is the Judgment.
Now how can ideas agree or disagree? Obviously, in their essential make-up, their Comprehension. If the essential notes (Comprehension) of two ideas are precisely the same, these ideas are identical, and are in full agreement. If two ideas are identical up to a certain point, they are in so far in agreement, and beyond that point they are in disagreement. Thus the ideas man and animal agree inasmuch as all the essential notes in the Comprehension of animal (viz., being, subsistent, bodily, living, sentient) are also in the Comprehension of the idea man (which is, being, subsistent, bodily, living, sentient, rational). The agreement of these two ideas can be enunciated by the mind in the judgment, “Man is an animal.” Inasmuch, however, as the ideas also disagree in point of rationality, the mind can enunciate the judgment, “Man is not an irrational animal.”
b) Definition of the Judgment
Judgment is the pronouncement of the mind upon the agreement or disagreement of two ideas.
When agreement is enunciated, the judgment is positive or affirmative. When disagreement is enunciated, the judgment is negative.
The judgment is a pronouncement of the mind; it is a mental enunciation, a predication. When one idea is enunciated of another as its inferior (subject), the idea so enunciated is called the predicate. Thus, judgment may be called the pronouncement of the mind in which a predicate-idea is enunciated of a subject-idea. All this will make clear the following somewhat difficult statement: Judgment is the pronouncement of the mind that one idea (subject) is or is not contained in the Extension of another idea (predicate) as an inferior.
You may illustrate the matter by circles. Draw a circle to indicate the idea animal. Draw another circle, partially overlapping the first, to indicate the idea man. The overlapping area indicates the point in which man and animal agree, and we may say — in so far — that man is an animal, and enunciate this mentally in the judgment, “Man is an animal.” The part of the man-circle which does not overlap, justifies the judgment, “Man is not a brute.” On the other hand, the part of the animal-circle which does not overlap, justifies the judgment, “A brute is not a man.”
c) Elements of the Judgment
Three elements enter into every judgment:
- two ideas in the mind;
- comparison of the two ideas by the mind;
- pronouncement by the mind (predication) on the agreement or disagreement of the two ideas.
The first two of these elements are taken together to constitute the material element of the judgment; the last is the formal element, the judgment proper.
We may mention here in passing that there are such things as sense-judgments. With these Dialectics has nothing to do, for this science treats of intellectual judgments wherein pronouncement is made upon ideas. Sense-judgments may be elicited by brutes, by those of undeveloped mind, and by normal adults acting without intellectual advertence. Thus the judgment that such a being is friendly or unfriendly (that is, is one to be sought after or avoided), that one sound is a summons and another a dismissal, are sense judgments. So also are judgments upon bodily things formed immediately upon sensation, such as “It is raining,” “I feel cold.”
Summary of the Chapter
In this brief Chapter we have learned what is meant by judgment, by the terms subject and predicate, by the term predication or pronouncement of judgment. We have distinguished positive and negative judgments, and have listed the elements of judgment, classifying these as material and formal.