An introductory text-book of logic - Mellone, Sydney - Rare Books at ...

AND THE LAWS OF THOUGHT. 19
mass as a whole, but common as applicable in the same
sense to different portions
already noticed this (Topics, I. ch. vii.)
of the mass. Aristotle had
: "The case of
water from the same well differs from the usual case of
objects being members of the same class only in that
the degree of resemblance between the objects is higher
in the former."
(c) A collective name is the name of a group of
similar things regarded as a whole, the name not being
applicable to the things taken one by one. Collective
in South
names may be singular, as, "the British Army
Africa,"
"
the present House of Commons"; or common,
as "a committee," "a
library." Where a name may be
used in both ways, the collective and distributive mean
ings must be carefully distinguished. Thus the name
"
"
committee is used distributively as being applicable
to each one of the many different groups
formed in the
manner, and with the object, which the name signifies.
But as applied to any particular one of these groups, its
use is not distributive but collective ; it cannot be given
to each or to any member composing the group, but
only to all the members together.
This distinction is of great importance ; and the neglect of
it may lead to serious fallacies or mistakes in reasoning.
The word
"
all,"
for instance, may be used either collectively
"
"
"
all men may mean any man," or
"
all
i.e., the human race as a whole. And what is
or distributively ;
"
men together
true of "all" collectively may not be true of "all" distribu
tively, or vice-versa. It is not easy to give simple examples
where the distinction covers a really deep difference of mean
ing, for such cases usually occur in the discussion of difficult
questions in ethics or philosophy. Consider Kant s dictum,
"ought implies can." We may interpret this in the sense
that "man is capable of realising every ideal which he is
capable of presenting
to himself." Understood distribu-