Note 203a

In NOTE 203 we showed the beginning of the process that will finally result in the complete definition of the term  ' dog '.
The proximal definition of this term is :  ' a mammal that can bark ',  and this is the middle term of a first syllogism leading to determine some individual, pointed to with the finger, as being a dog. The proximal definition (thus still not the complete definition) of the term  ' dog '  involves the more general term  ' mammal ',  and this term in turn needs to be defined (thereby making more complete the definition of the term  ' dog ' ).  And the definition of the term  ' mammal '  involves the more general term  ' vertebrate '  (which embodies a second middle term :  ' a vertebrate with hairs ' ).  But now the term  ' vertebrate '  must be defined in turn, involving the yet more general term  ' chordate ',  and so on and so on, all the way up to the supreme genus  ' substance '.
So the definition of the term  ' dog '  so far determined  reads :

(chordate (remote genus) with segmented spine (remote differentia) [ = vertebrate]
(vertebrate (remote genus) with hairs (remote differentia) [ = mammal]
(mammal (considered as proximal genus) that can bark (considered as proximal differentia [differentia specifica] )  [ = dog ]
.

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