is an
, then
is a
' is always true." Here at last we have a proposition of logic—the one which is only suggested by the traditional statement about Socrates and men and mortals.
It is clear that, if formal reasoning is what we are aiming at, we shall always arrive ultimately at statements like the above, in which no actual things or properties are mentioned; this will happen through the mere desire not to waste our time proving in a particular case what can be proved generally. It would be ridiculous to go through a long argument about Socrates, and then go through precisely the same argument again about Plato. If our argument is one (say) which holds of all men, we shall prove it concerning "