Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent<br><br>NO one is likely to deny that a question is distinct both from a conclusion and from an assertion and an assertion will be found to be equally distinct from a conclusion. For if we rest our affirmation on argu ments this shows that we are not asserting; and when we assert we do not argue. An assertion is as distinct from a conclusion as a word of command is from a per suasion or recommendation. Command and assertion as such both Of them in their different ways dispense with discard ignore antecedents of any kind though antecedents may have been a sine gud non condition Of their being elicited. They both carry with them the pretension of being personal acts.<br><br>In insisting on the intrinsic distinctness Of these three modes of putting a proposition I am not main taining that they may not co-exist as regards one and the same subject. For what we have already concluded we may if we will make a question of and what we are asserting we may of course conclude over again. We may assert to one man and conclude to another.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases an imperfection in the original such as a blemish or missing page may be replicated in our edition. We do however repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.