uivalent to '_All elephants are_ some _sagacious animals_.' The
affirmative predication of a quality does not imply exclusive possession
of it as denial implies its complete absence; and, therefore, to regard
the predicate of an affirmative proposition as distributed would be to
go beyond the evidence and to take for granted what had never been
alleged.
Some Logicians, seeing that the quantity of predicates, though not
distinctly expressed, is recognised, and holding that it is the part of
Logic "to make explicit in language whatever is implicit in thought,"
have proposed to exhibit the quantity of predicates by predesignation,
thus: 'Some men are _some_ wise (beings)'; 'some men are not _any_ brave
(beings)'; etc. This is called the Quantification of the Predicate,
and leads to some modifications of Deductive Logic which will be
referred to hereafter. (See Sec. 3; chap. vii. Sec. 4, and chap. viii. Sec. 3.)
Sec. 2. As to Quality, Propositions are either Affirmative or Negative. An
Affirmative Proposition is, formally, one whose copula is affirmative
(or, has no negative sign), as _S--is--P, All men--are--partial to
themselves_. A Negative Proposition is one whose copula is negative (or,
has a negative sign), as _S--is not--P, Some men--are not--proof against
flattery_. When, indeed, a Negative Proposition is of Universal
Quantity, it is stated thus: _No S is P, No men are proof against
flattery_; but, in this case, the detachment of the negative sign from
the copula and its association with the subject is merely an accident of
our idiom; the proposition is the same as _All men--are not--proof
against flattery_. It must be distinguished, therefore, from such an
expression as _Not every man is proof against flattery_; for here the
negative sign really restricts the subject; so that the meaning
is--_Some men at most_ (it may be _none) are proof against flattery_;
and thus the proposition is Particular, and is rendered--_Some men--are
not--proof against flattery_.
When the negative sign is associated with the predicate, so as to make
this an Infinite Term (chap. iv. Sec. 8), the proposition is called an
Infinite Proposition, as _S is not-P_ (or _p), All men are--incapable of
resisting flattery_, or _are--not-proof against flattery_.
Infinite propositions, when the copula is affirmative, are formally,
themselves affirmative, although their force is chiefly negative; for,
as the last example shows, the difference betw
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