[ad. mod.L. subsumptio, -ōnem, n. of action f. subsūmĕre to SUBSUME.]
1. Logic. A proposition subsumed under another; a minor premiss; gen., an assumption.
1651. Biggs, New Disp., ¶ 182. Galen himself proveth the subsumption.
1662. J. Chandler, Van Helmont’s Oriat., 57. They shall sweat more than enough, before they will prove the subsumption or second Proposition.
1672. G. Mackenzie, Pleadings, Pref. A iij b. It is the nature of a syllogisme to haue the subsumption in the second proposition.
1704. Lond. Gaz., No. 4037/5. This is not offered as an Elogie … on Her Majesty: She is far above what I can say, but it is an Antecedent to the following Subsumption.
1838. Sir W. Hamilton, Logic, xvi. (1866), I. 295. The proposition in which is expressed the relation of the middle term to the minor, is the Subsumption or Minor Premise.
1876. W. Fleming, Vocab. Philos. (ed. 3), s.v., Thus, if one were to say, ‘No man is wise in all things,’ and another to respond, ‘But you are a man,’ this proposition is a subsumption under the former.
b. Sc. Law. In full subsumption of the libel: a narrative of the alleged crime, specifying the manner, time and place of the crime, the person injured, etc. Obs. exc. Hist.
1639. Declar. conc. Tumults Scot., 256. The subsumptions of the particular faults committed by the Bishop of the Diocese.
1678. G. Mackenzie, Crim. Laws Scot., II. xxi. § i. (1699), 232. The Subsumption of the Libel, is the matter of Fact, which should condescend upon the Actors Names, and Designations.
1720. Wodrow, Corr. (1843), II. 491. Probably you will have heard the contents of it, and whether the subsumption relates to the stipend, or the five hundred pounds, or both. Ibid. (1727), III. 304. The whole of Mr. Dundas’ arguments run upon this supposition, that heresy was to be the subsumption of the libel.
1838. in W. Bell, Dict. Law Scot., 951.
2. Chiefly Logic and Philos. The bringing of a concept, cognition, etc., under a general term or a larger or higher concept, etc.; the instancing of a case under a rule, or the like.
1652. J. Pawson, Vind. Free Grace, 7. The term (as many παν ὸ quotquot) is too comprehensive and large to be restrained to so few as the Apostles; especially considering ’tis put as a sutable subsumption under that general term (all flesh) immediately foregoing.
1816. Coleridge, Lay Serm. (Bohn), 339. The understanding … is the science of phenomena, and their subsumption under distinct kinds and sorts (genus and species).
1823. De Quincey, Lett. to Yng. Man, Wks. 1860, XIV. 33. The minor is … distinguished from the major by an act of the judgment, namely, a subsumption of a special case under a rule. Ibid., 34. A casuistry, that is, a subsumption of the cases most frequently recurring in ordinary life.
1838. [F. Haywood], trans. Kant’s Crit. Pure Reason, 290. The subsumption of the condition of another possible judgment under the condition of the rule, is the minor.
1855. Sandars in Oxford Ess., 244. The administrative power, or the subsumption of different spheres and particular cases under the universal.
1864. Bowen, Logic, vii. 188. The Judgment that a given ‘Subject is contained under that intermediate Term or part,’ is the Subsumption of this Subject under the condition of that Rule.
1892. Athenæum, 25 June, 829/2. Is not the subsumption of fetishism under animism, as by Dr. Tylor, a self-contradictory confusing of two essentially different conceptions?
