Singular Terms
For Aristotle, the distinction between singular and universal is a fundamental metaphysical one, and not merely grammatical. A singular term for Aristotle is primary substance, which can only be predicated of itself: (this) "Callias" or (this) "Socrates" are not predicable of any other thing, thus one does not say every Socrates one says every human (De Int. 7; Meta. Δ9, 1018a4). It may feature as a grammatical predicate, as in the sentence "the person coming this way is Callias". But it is still a logical subject.
He contrasts "universal" (katholou, "whole") secondary substance, genera, with primary substance, particular specimens. The formal nature of universals, in so far as they can be generalized "always, or for the most part", are the subject matter of both scientific study and formal logic.
The essential feature of the syllogistic is that, of the four terms in the two premises, one must occur twice. Thus
- All Greeks are men
- All men are mortal.
The subject of one premise, must be the predicate of the other, and so it is necessary to eliminate from the logic any terms which cannot function both as subject and predicate, namely singular terms.
However, in a popular 17th century version of the syllogistic, Port-Royal Logic, singular terms were treated as universals:
- All men are mortals
- All Socrates are men
- All Socrates are mortals
This is clearly awkward, a weakness exploited by Frege in his devastating attack on the system (from which, ultimately, it never recovered, see concept and object).
The famous syllogism "Socrates is a man ...", is frequently quoted as though from Aristotle, but fact, it is nowhere in the Organon. It is first mentioned by Sextus Empiricus in his Hyp. Pyrrh. ii. 164.
Read more about this topic: Term Logic
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