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 ].