[21] When the objective standpoint is taken, there is an implied reference to some particular universe of discourse, within which the class denoted by the name is supposed to be included. The force of this remark will be made clearer at a subsequent stage.
In seeking to give a precise meaning to connotation, we may start from the above classification. It suggests three distinct senses in which the term might possibly be used, and as a matter of fact all three of these senses have been selected by different logicians, sometimes without any clear recognition of divergence from the usage of other writers. It is desirable that we should be quite clear in our own minds in which sense we intend to employ the term.
(i) According to Mill’s usage, which is that adopted in the following pages, the conventional standpoint is taken when we speak of the connotation of a name. On this view, we do not mean by the connotation of a class-name all the qualities possessed in common by the class; nor do we necessarily mean those particular qualities which may be mentally associated with the name; but we mean just those qualities on account of the possession of which any individual is placed in the class and called by the name. In other words, we include in the connotation of a class-name only those attributes upon which the classification is based, and in the absence of any of which the name would not be regarded as applicable. For example, although all equilateral triangles are equiangular, equiangularity is not on this view included in the connotation of equilateral 25 triangle, since it is not a property upon which the classification of triangles into equilateral and non-equilateral is based; although all kangaroos may happen to be Australian kangaroos, this is not part of what is necessarily implied by the use of the name, for an animal subsequently found in the interior of New Guinea, but otherwise possessing all the properties of kangaroos, would not have the name kangaroo denied to it; although all ruminant animals are cloven-hoofed, we cannot regard cloven-hoofed as part of the meaning of ruminant, and (as Mill observes) if an animal were to be discovered which chewed the cud, but had its feet undivided, it would certainly still be called ruminant.
(ii) Some writers who regard proper names as connotative appear to include in the connotation of a name all those attributes which the name suggests to the mind, whether or not they are actually implied by it. And it is to be observed in this connexion that a name may in the mind of any given individual be closely associated with properties which even the same individual would in no way regard as implied in the meaning of the name, as, for instance, “Trinity undergraduate” with a blue gown. This interpretation of connotation is, therefore, clearly to be distinguished from that given in the preceding paragraph.
We may further distinguish the view, apparently taken by some writers, according to which the connotation of a class-name at any given time would include all the properties known at that time to belong to the class.
(iii) Other writers use the term in still another sense and would include in the connotation of a class-name all the properties, known and unknown, which are possessed in common by all members of the class. Thus, Mr E. C. Benecke writes,—“Just as the word ‘man’ denotes every creature, or class of creatures, having the attributes of humanity, whether we know him or not, so does the word properly connote the whole of the properties common to the class, whether we know them or not. Many of the facts, known to physiologists and anatomists about the constitution of man’s brain, for example, are not involved in most men’s idea of the brain; the possession 26 of a brain precisely so constituted does not, therefore, form any part of their meaning of the word ‘man.’ Yet surely this is properly connoted by the word…. We have thus the denotation of the concrete name on the one side and its connotation on the other, occupying perfectly analogous positions. Given the connotation,—the denotation is all the objects that possess the whole of the properties so connoted. Given the denotation,—the connotation is the whole of the properties possessed in common by all the objects so denoted” (Mind, 1881, p. 532). Jevons uses the term in the same sense. “A term taken in intent (connotation) has for its meaning the whole infinite series of qualities and circumstances which a thing possesses. Of these qualities or circumstances some may be known and form the description or definition of the meaning; the infinite remainder are unknown” (Pure Logic, p. 6).[22]
[22] Bain appears to use the term in an intermediate sense, including in the connotation of a class-name not all the attributes common to the class but all the independent attributes, that is, all that cannot be derived or inferred from others.
While rejecting the use of the term connotation in any but the first of the above mentioned senses, we shall find it convenient to have distinctive terms which can be used with the other meanings that have been indicated. The three terms connotation, intension, and comprehension are commonly employed almost synonymously, and there will certainly be a gain in endeavouring to differentiate their meanings. Intension, as already suggested, may be used to indicate in the most general way what may be called the implicational aspect of names; the complex terms conventional intension, subjective intension, and objective intension will then explain themselves. Connotation may be used as equivalent to conventional intension ; and comprehension as equivalent to objective intension. Subjective intension is less important from the logical standpoint, and we need not seek to invent a single term to be used as its equivalent.[23]
[23] For anyone who is given the meaning of a name but knows nothing of the objects denoted by the name, subjective intension coincides with connotation. Were the ideal of knowledge to be reached, subjective intension would coincide with comprehension.
27 Conventional intension or connotation will then include only those attributes which constitute the meaning of a name;[24] subjective intension will include those that are mentally associated with it, whether or not they are actually signified by it; objective intension or comprehension will include all the attributes possessed in common by all members of the class denoted by the name. We might perhaps speak more strictly of the connotation of the name itself, the subjective intension of the notion which is the mental equivalent of the name, and the comprehension of the class which is denoted by the name.[25]