NATURE OF THE JUDGMENT AND PROPOSITION. 157 



of the subject is usually the more prominent. This will often 

 help to determine which of two common substantives is subject 

 and which predicate. 



(d] If one term be singular and the other general the former 

 is usually subject, the latter predicate. 



(e) If one of two general terms be used explicitly in its whole 

 denotation, in an affirmative proposition, it is subject. Affir 

 mative propositions do not make reference to the whole denotation 

 of their predicates (91). 



(/) Professor Welton observes 1 that the presence of a limiting 

 subordinate clause will help us to fix upon the logical subject, 

 since such clauses &quot; always really affect the subject, even when it 

 is not immediately apparent that they do so ; for the subject is 

 the more definitely determined term in every proposition&quot;. It 

 is the more fixed and central element ; not, however, the better 

 known, for the function of the predicate is to interpret or ex 

 plain it. 



The example he gives is the following : &quot; I have read all the books in 

 this library which treat of Politics &quot;. This proposition illustrates well the 

 ambiguity that may often arise about the logical subject. 2 If the speaker be 

 answering a query as to what books he in particular had read, the logical 

 subject would be &quot; /&quot;. Were he boasting of the extent of his political read 

 ing, the logical proposition would run thus ; &quot; Tfry political reading embraces 

 or extends to all the political books in this library &quot;. In the absence of any 

 information about the context we may fairly say that &quot; All the books in this 

 library which treat of Politics &quot; form the subject-matter, the logical subject, 

 about which he wishes to make a certain assertion, namely, that they were 

 read by him. Thus the restrictive clause appears in the subject. 



The above remarks apply primarily to the categorical judgment. In 

 the hypothetical, we shall see that antecedent and consequent take the place 

 of subject and predicate. 



The structure of the judgment by means of subject, predicate, 

 and copula shows us that in a certain sense the judgment 

 necessarily involves both unity and plurality, both synthesis and 

 analysis. There is a plurality of terms and concepts (subject and 

 predicate) ; but the act of judgment effects a union of these, inas 

 much as it is one mental act, one single interpretation of some 

 one reality, a synthesizing or bringing together of separate ideas 

 which represent separate aspects (reached by analysis] of that 



1 Logic, i., p. 177. 



2 C/. example from Byron, infra, 94 : which is logical subject the crag or the 

 Rhine ? 



