We distinguish in order to separate or keep things apart which might otherwise be confounded.We discriminate with the further view of showing where in their differences consist.
Hence discrimination must always be nice, particular, and exact, dissecting, as it were the things discriminated. distinction maybe exact or not, minute or tough, broad or nice.
I cannot really get what these explanations mean. Would anyone possibly show me their meaning, especially by some example?
Any help would be appreciated.
Best Answer
I think the author refers to the word distinguish as having a meaning close to one of the following (from The Merriam Webster):
Whereas, he seems to be describing discriminate as
So, in discriminate, the emphasis is put onto recognizing the very aspects that differentiate one group from another.
Whereas in distinguish , we don't elaborate on why they are different. We just state the fact that they are.
An example that denotes this particular meaning for discriminate would be:
And for distinguish, it would be: