Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 6.djvu/561

THE EXISTENTIAL IMPORT OF PROPOSITIONS. 545 used by one who devoutly believed in all the folk-lore of his people, to illustrate, for example, the shyness of the animal ; in which case, of course, there would be the ordinary full existential import. The only other sense in which the words can be used is as an argument for the non-existence of unicorns. The first speaker's intention is to assert a fact about unicorns ; the second speaker's to assert that a certain thing is a fact about them, if there are any for it to be a fact about. Are we to treat a hypothetical proposi- tion as categorical, simply because the hypothesis is so plainly implied that it is needless to express it ? As an argumentum ad hominem to Dr. Keynes, it may be pointed out that neither particular nor singular propositions are free from anomalous instances of this kind. Dr. Keynes admits this in the case of singulars, as in the proposition, The first man to ascend Mount Everest will be famous ; and he makes no difficulty this time about relegating the proposition to its right place amongst hypothetical. But particular propositions are no better off. Take, for example, Some candidates arriving late are fined. This does not necessarily imply that any candidate ever arrived late. It may only be a partial statement of a regulation that provides for the fining of any candidate who comes late without an excuse signed by his tutor. Formal logicians have possibly the right to frame whatever con- vention they find best suited to their purpose. But if they claim the sanction of usage, and consider it urgent to keep in harmony with the actual forms of speech, they are not at liberty to frame a convention that allows a necessary existential import to particular and singular propositions, and denies it to universal propositions. In all three cases, the (even apparent) exceptions are rare, but they are found in all alike. It is difficult to imagine what con- sideration would entitle us to neglect them in any, without entitling us to neglect them in all. One of the examples quoted above from Dr. Keynes does not seem to me to be hypothetical ; but, on the other hand, its exis- tential import is sufficiently evident. The fact of my making a statement about all honest millers either implies that there are such persons, or it leaves it an open question. If the latter, the example before us is equivalent to, All honest millers, if it should be found that there are any, have golden thumbs; which is as far as possible from the meaning. It follows that the existence of honest millers is implied, which seems rather odd in a statement that aims at conveying the direct opposite. The explanation is that the existence is implied in irony ; and therein lies the whole point of the saying. That there is an irony somewhere is evident. It is obviously not in the affirmation, or else the suggestion would be that the thumbs of millers were made of commoner clay than the thumbs of other men. It must then be in the implication, and, if so, the suggestion will be (on my view of the implication) that there are no honest millers ; which is precisely what is intended. 35