282 THE SCIENCE OF LOGIC 



cals; and when the proposition is negative the introduction of. 

 an alternative into the predicate does not give any choice of pre 

 dications at all : it cannot have the effect here of widening or 

 making more indefinite the class to which the subject is referred, 

 for this is already distributed, and thus wholly excluded from 

 the subject, in a negative proposition. When we introduce an 

 alternative into the predicate of the judgment &quot;No X is Y&quot; and 

 say &quot; No X is either V or Z &quot; we do not increase but diminish the 

 vagueness of the reference of the subject. This form, &quot;No X is 

 either Y or Z&quot; is called the Remotive Proposition because it 

 removes, or denies altogether, the two simple judgments (X is Y 

 and X is Z} that are conjoined in the copulative or conjunctive 

 proposition. 



Thus we see that not every proposition which has an alterna 

 tive predicate gives an alternative predication, or a choice of 

 judgments. We may point out here that, similarly, not every 

 proposition which has a conjunctive subject gives a conjunctive 

 or copulative proposition (87), in the sense of a compound proposi 

 tion which asserts the simultaneous truth of two judgments. For 

 example, &quot; Two and two are four &quot;Black and white are incom 

 patible terms&quot; these are not copulative, but simple, categorical 

 propositions. 



From the examples given above we see that it is possible to 

 substitute for the judgment with an alternative predicate a simple, 

 categorical judgment, whenever the wider class, under which the 

 alternatives are sub-classes, happens to have a special name. 

 More usually, perhaps, this wider class has no special name. We 

 may instance : He is either a knave or a fool ; We must be either 

 vaccinated or run &amp;gt; the risk of small-pox ; The election will turn 

 either on the eight-hours question or on the Home Rule question. 

 Although we might conceivably invent a name for every group 

 of sub-classes, thus brought together in alternative predication, it 

 would be useless and absurd to do so in the cases of sub-classes 

 which are too disparate to be conveniently grouped together. 

 The alternative judgment enables us to recognize them as co 

 existing classes, to the combined extension of which we may refer 

 a given subject ; and this is sufficient for our needs. 



When the subject of any judgment with an alternative predi 

 cate is preceded by the distributive All (Every], or by the indefinite 

 Some, e.g. ^ All (or Some) X s are either Y or Z&quot; the form is 

 ambiguous, for it does not tell us whether the &quot; AH&quot; or &quot; Some&quot; 



