A capon is a castrated male chicken according to Merriam Webster's 10th Collegiate Dictionary.
It comes from the Greek word apocope; literally, cutting off.
Start with a statement that we all know, "All men are mortal." Next, using the classic minor premise, "Socrates is a man," we conclude, "Therefore Socrates is mortal." So we now have the classic example of a syllogism: A syllogism, as you know, consists of a major premise, a minor premise and a conclusion. Now, let's abstract that syllogism.
To "abstract" means to cut away. "Abstracting" sounds like a capon, doesn't it? Or should I say, "caponizing?" Well, yes. When we cut away the particulars and merely leave the form, we have "abstracted" the particular into the general.
When we abstract elements of that syllogism we keep the form but get rid of the particulars by saying, "All 'A' are 'B' but not all 'B' are 'A,'" wherein 'A' stands for men and 'B' stands for mortals and it still makes sense; All men are mortal but not all mortals are men.
But without the original example or examples like it, it sounds kind of weird. Abstract thinking is a whole other kind of thing than experiencing the "here and now" in that it seems to have no substance other than its form. But wait a minute, when you see a stop-sign, that sign is an abstraction. It doesn't mean, "You stop!" It means, "All of you stop!" It has gone from the particular to the general. So abstractions, as well as having form, have the potential for communicating something. In this case, something that has most likely saved countless lives.
Sometimes we can abstract in reverse. Take the example, "All aphesis is aphaeresis but not all aphaeresis is aphesis." First off, what the hell is "aphesis"? And for that matter, what the hell is "aphaeresis"?
But how much does it matter? All we've done is to substitute two weird words for two simple letters. Why let the weirdness get in your way? The 'A' and 'B' statement made a lot of sense.
It told you that assuming "guilt by association" is not necessarily true or proper or correct; nor is "worthiness by association." Just because Socrates is a worthy man doesn't mean that all men are worthy. But why use the weird words? Why not stick to letters that we know to be mere symbols? Wouldn't that be less confusing?
There's an answer to this question and it has profound ramifications.
It's time to cut to the capon. Its Greek root, "apocope," is actually also an English word. It means "the cutting off of a sound or letter from the end of a word," like fishin' for fishing.
When you do this you are apocopizing.
"Aphaeresis" is like apocope except that it lies at the front end of a word as in round for around or coon for raccoon. "Aphesis" is a special type of apheresis [either spelling (of aphaeresis) is correct] that only applies to cutting away short, unaccented vowels as in lone for alone. Therefore all apheresis is not aphesis.
Don't you think that it's amazing that I've gotten you to read all this shit? It's what I call a profound ramification. We just reversed the abstracting process. The example became the point. And you know what? It usually is! You may try but you'll never forget it.
© 2003__Muldoon Elder