A Class Room Logic / Deductive and Inductive, with Special Application to the Science and Art of Teaching

by George Hastings McNair

THE PROCESS OF CONCEPTION ILLUSTRATED.

I see for the first time in my life a pencil. In other words I become conscious of a localized group of sensations—this is a percept. I am told that the name of that which I see is pencil. I note that this particular pencil has a thread of black lead encased in a cylindrical strip of wood which is brown in color. A second object is presented which I recognize as a pencil though the shape is prismatic rather than cylindrical and the color green rather than brown. But I call it a pencil because it has a thread of black lead encased in a strip of wood. The notion which I now have in mind stands for two pencils and is therefore represented by a class name. As I observe other pencils of various shapes, made of wood and paper with threads of different colored lead, my notion of pencil broadens till finally it stands for all pencils. This is the process of conception according to the definition, namely: “The process of thinking many notions into one class.” In this case the notions are individual.

An examination of conception makes evident two distinct characteristics.First, I may be able to recognize each individual pencil because of the two common qualities, a thread of lead and an encasement of some kind. This process of the knowing mind whereby it recognizes and affirms connections is called thinking as we have already learned. Here is the thinking aspect of conception. Second, as the instances of the observed objects are multiplied, my notion of pencil is broadened. It is a building process where many are cemented into one; like the blocks of a cement wall. Here we find the characteristic which enables us to call the process conception. This is the mark which distinguishes conception from all the other thought processes.

10. THE JUDGMENT AS A THOUGHT PRODUCT.

Judging is the process of conjoining and disjoining notions.The product of judging is the judgment and all judgments are expressed by means of propositions. A proposition consists of one subject and one predicate connected by some form of the verb be or its equivalent.

(1) A judgment may conjoin or disjoin two individual notions.

To wit: Conjoined—This pencil belongs to Albert White.

Disjoined—This pencil does not belong to Mary Smith.

(2) A judgment may conjoin or disjoin two general notions.

Conjoined—Some men are virtuous.