University of Groningen
Law of Significant Assertion in Emily Elizabeth Constance Jones (1848-1922)
Peijnenburg, Jeanne; Ostertag, Gary
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The Encyclopedia of Concise Concepts by Women Philosophers
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Publication date: 2019
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Peijnenburg, J., & Ostertag, G. (2019). Law of Significant Assertion in Emily Elizabeth Constance Jones (1848-1922). In M. E. Waithe, & R. Hagengruber (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of Concise Concepts by Women Philosophers Paderborn University. https://historyofwomenphilosophers.org/ecc/#hwps
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How to cite this article: Jeanne Peijnenburg, Gary Ostertag & 2019. "Law of Significant Assertion in Emily Elizabeth Constance Jones (1848–1922)", in Waithe, Mary Ellen & Hagengruber, Ruth (eds.): Encyclopedia
of Concise Concepts by Women Philosophers. DOI: (DOI pending) [12|11|2019].
https://historyofwomenphilosophers.org/ecc/
1/2 Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists
Paderborn University, Germany
Law of Significant Assertion in Emily
Elizabeth Constance Jones (1848–1922)
Gary Ostertag & Jeanne Peijnenburg
City University of New York & University of Groningen
The Law of Significant Assertion (Jones 1890, 1893–1894, 1911) was conceived as a solution to what we might call “the problem of the categorical proposition”, which Jones encountered in the work of various philosophers, notably of Lotze (1888). For example, a categorical proposition like ‘All lions are quadrupeds’ asserts an identity between the class of lions and (a particular subclass of) quadrupeds. This raises a problem: merely asserting the numerical identity of two classes of entities leaves unexplained that ‘All lions are quadrupeds’ can add to our knowledge. It is equivalent to saying that lions are lions or that quadrupeds of a given class are quadrupeds of that same class (Frege 1892 makes a similar observation, but focuses on proper names).
Jones’ solution is that in a categorical proposition like ‘All S-things are P-things’ we have “identity of denotation in diversity of intension” (Jones 1911: 1, 14) – this is her law of
significant assertion. Although what makes the assertion that lions are quadrupeds true is
indeed the aforementioned identity, which is trivial, what gives the assertion genuine content, according to Jones, is the fact that things conceived of in one manner (‘a large tawny-colored cat that lives in prides’) are the same as things conceived of in another (‘an animal with four feet’).
Russell (1905, 1911) was also concerned with so-called informative identities and developed the theory of descriptions to explain them. On this theory, ‘Scott is the author of Waverley’ is not, in fact, an identity sentence. Rather, it asserts that something is both uniquely author of Waverley and identical with Scott. Jones felt that this theory still presupposes her distinction between identity of denotation and diversity in intension (Jones 1911: 46–47). The debate between the two occurs in Russell (1911) and Jones (1910–11). See also Ostertag (2011) for discussion.
How to cite this article: Jeanne Peijnenburg, Gary Ostertag & 2019. "Law of Significant Assertion in Emily Elizabeth Constance Jones (1848–1922)", in Waithe, Mary Ellen & Hagengruber, Ruth (eds.): Encyclopedia
of Concise Concepts by Women Philosophers. DOI: (DOI pending) [12|11|2019].
https://historyofwomenphilosophers.org/ecc/
2/2 Primary Sources:
Frege, Gottlob 1892. Über Sinn und Bedeutung. Zeitschrift für Philosophie und
philosophische Kritik 100: 25–50. Translated as “On Sinn and Bedeutung”, in
Beaney, M. (ed.) 1997: The Frege Reader. Oxford: Blackwell.
Jones, Emily Elizabeth Constance 1890. Elements of Logic as a Sciece of Propositions. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark.
___________ 1893–94. Import Of Categorical Propositions. Proceedings of the Aristotelian
Society 2: 35–45.
___________ 1910–11. A New Law of Thought. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, (N.S.) 11: 166–186.
___________ 1911. A New Law of Thought and Its Logical Bearings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lotze, Hermann 1888. Logic, in Three Books: Volume One. Bosanquet, Bernard (trans.). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Russell, Bertrand 1905. On Denoting. Mind 14: 479–93.
___________ 1910–11. Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by Description.
Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 11: 108–128.
Secondary Sources:
Ostertag, Gary 2011. Emily Elizabeth Constance Jones, The Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy, URL: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/emily-elizabeth-constance-jones/
[10|04|2019].
Waithe, Mary Ellen & Cicero, Samantha 1995. E.E. Constance Jones (1848–1922). In: Waithe, Mary Ellen, A History of Women Philosophers, Volume 4. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 25–50.
Keywords:
assertion, identity, Bertrand Russel, Hermann Lotze Copyright 2019
