CA TEGORICAL JUDGMENTS AND PROPOSITIONS. 1 87 



Universal Affirmative (A) . . S a P . (Every S is P) 



Particular Affirmative (/) . . S i P . (Some S s are P) 



Universal Negative (E) . . . S e P . (No S is P) 



Particular Negative (O) . . . S o P . (Some S s are not P) 



Although it is the connotation of the predicate that is more 

 usually thought of in the act of judgment (100), still the predicate 

 has its denotation as well ; and this denotation may possibly 

 be thought of in the act of judgment. Hence we may inquire 

 whether or when the predicate is distributed, i.e. taken in its 

 whole denotation, in our judgments. We shall find that the 

 answer to this question depends on the quality of the judgment : 

 that negative judgments distribute their predicates , while affirmative 

 judgments do not. A little reflection, aided by a few simple 

 examples, will make this quite clear. 



The affirmative proposition asserts that some subject (S) pos 

 sesses a certain attribute or group of attributes (/*), but it does 

 not by any means assert that there are not, or cannot be, any 

 other things which also possess that same attribute (or group). 1 

 There may be many other things besides the S s, which possess 

 P, and to which, therefore, the class name P may be applied, since 

 they fall within its denotation. When we say that &quot; All men 

 are animals &quot; or that &quot; Some men live exclusively on vegetables,&quot; 

 our propositions do not exhaust the class of &quot; animals &quot; or the 

 class of &quot;beings that live exclusively on vegetables&quot;; they do 

 not state that there are not, or may not be, other animals besides 

 &quot; all men,&quot; or other beings that live on vegetables besides the &quot; some 

 men &quot; in question ; i.e. the propositions do not refer to the whole 

 denotation of their predicates : they do not distribute their pre 

 dicates. 2 



Negative propositions, on the contrary, do distribute their 

 predicates. The force of the negative proposition is to exclude a 

 certain attribute (or group of attributes) from a certain subject (or 

 group of subjects). But, evidently, it will not succeed in doing this 

 unless it totally separates the whole class of things (P s) possess 

 ing that attribute (or group), P, from the subject, 5 ; i.e. unless 



1 It may, of course, happen to distribute its predicate e.g. if it be a definition or 

 give a proprium (in the strict sense) of the subject, as &quot; All men are (all) rational 

 animals &quot; but this is not by reason of the/orw of the proposition : it arises from the 

 matter of objects dealt with. Such reciprocal universal propositions are called some 

 times &quot; U &quot; propositions (cf. 105). 



2 If the extension of the predicate is not explicitly before the mind at all, the 

 predicate is also said to be &quot; undistributed &quot;. C/. JOSEPH, op. cit., pp. 195, 196. 



