FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74  
75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   >>   >|  
and Negative couples, like 'happy and unhappy,' which (as we have seen) are not contradictories, are often called Opposites. The members of any series of Contraries are all included by any one of them and its contradictory, as all colours come under 'red' and 'not-red,' all moods of feeling under 'happy' and 'not-happy.' CHAPTER V THE CLASSIFICATION OF PROPOSITIONS Sec. 1. Logicians classify Propositions according to Quantity, Quality, Relation and Modality. As to Quantity, propositions are either Universal or Particular; that is to say, the predicate is affirmed or denied either of the whole subject or of a part of it--of _All_ or of _Some S_. _All S is P_ (that is, _P_ is predicated of _all S_). _Some S is P_ (that is, _P_ is predicated of _some S_). An Universal Proposition may have for its subject a singular term, a collective, a general term distributed, or an abstract term. (1) A proposition having a singular term for its subject, as _The Queen has gone to France_, is called a Singular Proposition; and some Logicians regard this as a third species of proposition with respect to quantity, distinct from the Universal and Particular; but that is needless. (2) A collective term may be the subject, as _The Black Watch is ordered to India_. In this case, as well as in singular propositions, a predication is made concerning the whole subject as a whole. (3) The subject may be a general term taken in its full denotation, as _All apes are sagacious_; and in this case a Predication is made concerning the whole subject distributively; that is, of each and everything the subject stands for. (4) Propositions whose subjects are abstract terms, though they may seem to be formally Singular, are really as to their meaning distributive Universals; since whatever is true of a quality is true of whatever thing has that quality so far as that quality is concerned. _Truth will prevail_ means that _All true propositions are accepted at last_ (by sheer force of being true, in spite of interests, prejudices, ignorance and indifference). To bear this in mind may make one cautious in the use of abstract terms. In the above paragraphs a distinction is implied between Singular and Distributive Universals; but, technically, every term, whether subject or predicate, when taken in its full denotation (or universally), is said to be 'distributed,' although this word, in its ordinary sense, would be direc
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74  
75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
subject
 

propositions

 

quality

 

abstract

 

Singular

 

singular

 

Universal

 

Quantity

 

Particular

 
Proposition

collective

 

general

 

distributed

 

predicated

 

predicate

 

proposition

 

Universals

 
called
 
Propositions
 
denotation

Logicians

 

stands

 

distributive

 

meaning

 

concerned

 

formally

 

subjects

 

Distributive

 
technically
 

implied


paragraphs
 
distinction
 

ordinary

 
universally
 
cautious
 
distributively
 

accepted

 

prevail

 
indifference
 
interests

prejudices
 

ignorance

 

France

 
CHAPTER
 
feeling
 

colours

 

CLASSIFICATION

 

Quality

 

Relation

 

classify