5

1908 Oct 28
Logic
10

Suppose that you were to interrupt a discourse by the
question, "Of what are you speaking?" and the reply were to be
"Of something." This would be called a highly "indefinite" description.
It might be a very convenient reticence for the speaker; for if he confined
himself to simple predicates, nothing he said could be gainsaid.
For something is white, and something is black; something is odd
and something is even; and so on through the dictionary. Now think
of an analogous reserve, an analogous indefiniteness, not
in description merely, but in being, and you have Nothing.
Nothing may be defined as that which is indistinct in being.

Again, suppose that on another occasion, the answer to
the same inquiry, "Of what are you speaking?" should be "Of
whatever you please." This would be called the most general description