We shall have subsequently to deal with the ordinary distinction between universal and particular propositions; but it will be clear that the claim to universality which we are now considering is one that must be made on behalf of so-called particular, as well as of so-called universal, propositions. The judgment that some men are six feet in height claims universal acceptance just as much as the judgment that all men are mortal.
Some judgments again contain an explicit or implicit reference to time. But this is really part of the judgment. As 77 soon as the judgment is fully stated it becomes independent of time. It may perhaps be said that the judgment France is under Bourbon rule was true two centuries ago, but is not true now. But the judgment as it stands, without context, is incompletely stated. That France is (or was) under Bourbon rule in the year 1906 A.D. is for all time false; that France is (or was) under Bourbon rule in the year 1706 A.D. is for all time true.
In regard to the nature and significance of the reference to time in judgments, Mr Bosanquet draws a useful distinction between the time of predication and the time in predication.[77] By the time of predication is meant the time at which some thinking being makes the judgment; and this in no way affects the truth of the judgment. But, as Sigwart points out, everything which exists as a particular thing occupies a definite position in time. Hence all judgments relating to particular things, including singular judgments and so-called narrative judgments, relate to some definite time, past, present, or future, with reference to which alone the statements made are valid. This is the time in predication, and the reference to it must be regarded as an intrinsic part of the judgment itself, although it is not always explicitly mentioned.
[77] Logic, I. p. 215. Compare Sigwart, Logic, § 15.
It will be seen that the recognition of the universality of all judgments in the sense here indicated is but the recognition in another aspect of their objective character.
51. The Necessity of Judgments.—A further characteristic that has been ascribed to all judgments, when considered in relation to the judging mind, is necessity. This too is connected with the claim to objective validity. When we judge, we are not free to judge as we will. No doubt by controlling the intellectual influences to which we subject ourselves we may indirectly and in the long run modify within certain limits our beliefs. This is a question belonging to psychology into which we need not now enter. But at any given moment the judgments we form are determined by our mental history and the circumstances in which we are placed. We are bound to judge as we do judge; so far as we feel a question to be an 78 open one our judgment regarding it is suspended. It must be granted that we not unfrequently make statements which do not betray the doubts which as a matter of fact we feel with regard to the point at issue; but such statements do not represent our real judgments. The propositions we utter are the expressions of possible judgments, but not of our judgments.
In any discussion of the modality of judgments, other senses in which the term “necessary” may be applied to judgments have to be considered. In here affirming necessity as a characteristic of all judgments, we are merely declaring over again in another aspect their objective character. The merely subjective sequence of ideas in our minds is more or less under our own control. At any rate we can at will bring given ideas together in our mind. But a judgment is more than a relation between ideas. It claims to be true of some system of reality; and hence it is not so much determined by us, as for us by the knowledge which we have come to possess or think we have come to possess about that system of reality.
EXERCISE.
52. “What is once true is always true.”
“What is true to-day may be false to-morrow.”
Examine these statements. [L.]