Franz Brentano_The True and the Evident.pdf

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The True and the Evident
13. But one may ask whether the particles do not also, in a certain sense, signify something
by themselves or indicate something by themselves. 8
14. Strictly speaking, this can even be said of letters. In pronouncing the letter “L”, one
makes known that this sound was in one’s thought. 9
15. The same is true of syllables.
16. Also of every complete word, whether it be univocal or equivocal.
17. When the word is equivocal, then it is a sign which provides some degree of probability
but not certainty. The listener knows that either this or that is my thought.
18. If we restrict ourselves to univocal words, we may readily infer what applies to equivocal
words.
19. I am saying, not only of the completed speech, but also of each of its constituent
words, that it yields some information about what is going on in the intellect or mind of
the speaker.
This is true of the names of things. These names enable me to know that the speaker has
something as the object of his thought (he considers the thing positively, though perhaps
without accepting it and possibly even under the conviction that there is no such thing). It
is impossible to deny or reject a thing without considering the thing positively. 10 Similarly
for love, hatred, and the like.
20. The same thing holds of the casus obliqui of the names of things. 11 It is impossible to
think of the hat of a man without thinking of the man. The latter thought prepares the way
for the former. The thought of the man is fundamental., the thought of the hat of the man is
supraposed (upon the thinking of the collective, hat and man).
21. The same is true of those names that are not names of things. Actually such names also
indicate that the speaker is thinking of some thing. 12 (Only things can be thought.) The
term “virtue”, for example, indicates that the speaker is thinking of a virtuous person and is
concerned with him as a virtuous person. The term “necessary” indicates that the speaker is
thinking of someone who is making an apodictic judgement. The term “thought” indicates
that the speaker is thinking of someone who is himself thinking; “willed” indicates that he
is thinking about someone willing. 13
22. The same is true, as we have said, of any other word or particle. “But” indicates that
the speaker is making a contrast; “and” that he is thinking of something as conjoined;
“a” or “an” that he is thinking of something in general terms; “of ” that he is thinking
of something relative. (If the latter were not itself equivocal, it would convey even more
precise knowledge.)