DICEY

dicey, edward (1832- ), english writer, son of t. e. dicey of claybrook hall, leicestershire, was born in 1832. educated at trinity college, cambridge, where he took mathematical and classical honours, he became an active journalist, contributing largely to the principal reviews. he was called to the bar in 1875, became a bencher of gray's inn in 1896, and was treasurer in 1903-1904. he was connected with the _daily telegraph_ as leader writer and then as special correspondent, and after a short spell in 1870 as editor of the _daily news_ he became editor of the _observer_, a position which he held until 1889. of his many books on foreign affairs perhaps the most important are his _england and egypt_ (1884), _bulgaria, the peasant state_ (1895), _the story of the khedivate_ (1902), and _the egypt of the future_ (1907). he was created c.b. in 1886. his brother albert venn dicey (b. 1835), english jurist, was educated at balliol college, oxford, where he took a first class in the classical schools in 1858. he was called to the bar at the inner temple in 1863. he held fellowships successively at balliol, trinity and all souls', and from 1882 to 1909 was vinerian professor of law. he became q.c. in 1890. his chief works are the _introduction to the study of the law of the constitution_ (1885, 6th ed. 1902), which ranks as a standard work on the subject; _england's case against home rule_ (1886); _a digest of the law of england with reference to the conflict of laws_ (1896), and _lectures on the relation between law and public opinion in england during the 19th century_ (1905). dichotomy (gr. [greek: dicha], apart, [greek: temnein], to cut), literally a cutting asunder, the technical term for a form of logical division, consisting in the separation of a genus into two species, one of which has and the other has not, a certain quality or attribute. thus men may be thus divided into white men, and men who are not white; each of these may be subdivided similarly. on the principle of contradiction this division is both exhaustive and exclusive; there can be no overlapping, and no members of the original genus or the lower groups are omitted. this method of classification, though formally accurate, has slight value in the exact sciences, partly because at every step one of the two groups is merely negatively characterized and therefore incapable of real subdivision; it is useful, however, in setting forth clearly the gradual descent from the most inclusive genus (_summum genus_) through species to the lowest class (_infima species_), which is divisible only into individual persons or things. (see further division.) in astronomy the term is used for the aspect of the moon or of a planet when apparently half illuminated, so that its disk has the form of a semicircle.