PROPOSITIONS. 69 



gethcr under another head, being properly assertions not of any thing re- 

 lating to the fact itself, but of the state of our own mind in regard to it ; 

 namely, our absence of disbelief of it. Thus " Caesar may be dead" means 

 " I am not sure that Caesar is alive." 



§ 3. The next division of propositions is into Simple and Complex ; more 

 aptly (by Professor Bain*) termed Compound. A simple proposition is 

 that in which one predicate is affirmed or denied of one subject. A com- 

 pound proposition is that in which there is more than one predicate, or 

 more than one subject, or both. 



At first sight this division has the air of an absurdity ; a solemn distinc- 

 tion of things into one and more than one ; as if we were to divide horses 

 into single horses and teams of horses. And it is true that what is called 

 a complex (or compound) proposition is often not a proposition at all, but 

 several propositions, held together by a conjunction. Such, for example, is 

 this : CjBsar is dead, and Brutus is alive : or even this, Cjesar is dead, bict 

 Brutus is alive. There are here two distinct assertions ; and we might as 

 well call a street a complex house, as these two propositions a complex 

 proposition. It is true that the syncategorematic words and and hut have 

 a meaning; but that meaning is so far from making the two propositions 

 one, that it adds a third proposition to them. All j)articles are abbrevia- 

 tions, and generally abbreviations of propositions ; a kind of short-hand, 

 whereby something which, to be expressed fully, would have required a 

 proposition or a series of propositions, is suggested to the mind at once. 

 Thus the words, Cffisar is dead and Brutus is alive, are equivalent to these : 

 Caesar is dead ; Brutus is alive ; it is desired that the two preceding prop- 

 ositions should be thought of together. If the words were, Caesar is dead, 

 but Brutus is alive, the sense would be equivalent to the same three propo- 

 sitions together with a fourth ; " between the two preceding propositions 

 there exists a contrast :" viz., either between the two facts themselves, or 

 between the feelings with which it is desired that they should be regarded. 



In the instances cited the two propositions are kept visibly distinct, each 

 subject having its separate predicate, and each predicate its separate sub- 

 ject. For brevity, however, and to avoid repetition, the pi'opositions are 

 often blended together: as in this, "Peter and James preached at Jerusa- 

 lem and in Galilee," which contains four propositions : Peter preached at 

 Jerusalem, Peter preached in Galilee, James preached at Jerusalem, James 

 preached in Galilee. 



We have seen that when the two or more propositions comprised in 

 what is called a complex proposition are stated absolutely, and not under 

 any condition or proviso, it is not a proposition at all, but a plurality of 

 propositions ; since what it expresses is not a single assertion, but several 

 assertions, which, if true when joined, are true also when separated. But 

 there is a kind of proposition which, though it contains a plurality of sub- 

 jects and of predicates, and may be said in one sense of the word to con- 

 sist of sevei'al propositions, contains but one assertion ; and its truth does 

 not at all imply that of the simple propositions which compose it. An ex- 

 ample of this is, when the simple propositions are connected by the parti- 

 cle or; as, either A is B or C is D ; or by the particle if; as, A is B if C 

 is D. In the former case, the proposition is called disjunctive, in the lat- 

 ter, conditional: the name hypothetical was originally common to both. 



Logic, i., 85. 



