DIVISION ( OF. derision. division, Fr. shm, from Lat. dirisio, from divider,. to divide). In logic, the proces, of distributing all the ob jects included in the denotation (q.v.) of a con cept (q.v.) into mutually exclusive classes, of which is marked of from the others by the possession of some distinctive attribute. Logical division nest not be confounded with physical division. In the former the whole (called genus) can be predicated of the resultant parts (called species. ace PREDICABLEsi : ill the latter such predication is nut possible. Thus, when Cuvier divided his order of primates (q.v.) into homo, sibnia. lemur, and vespertilio. he performed a logical division because the whole thus di vided, primate, is predicable of every one of the parts obtained; in other words, it. can he said that MINI is a primate. But when a man is dissected into head. trunk. feet, etc., the divi sion is not logical, but physical, because the whole cannot be predicated of the parts: we can not say that the head is a inan. Traditional
logic generally gives the following rides for cor rect division: First, the division must be ex haustive; i.e. the sum of the denotations of the species must be exactly equal to the denotation of the genus. Second, the division must be exclusive: i.e. no object found in the denotation of any species must be found in the denotation of any other species. Third, in order to secure eonformity to the above rules the division should be based on some one eharaeteristie in regard to which the various objects in the denotation of the concept to be divided differ from each other. This characteristic used as the basis of division is called the fundament/in/ dirisionis. Thu; when plane triangles are divided into scalene, isoseeleA, and equilateral triangles. the fundament um diri sionis is the relative length of the sides of triangles..