VO NAMES AND PROPOSITIONS. 



As has been well remarked by Ai-chbishop Whately and others, the dis- 

 junctive form is resolvable into the conditional; every disjunctive proposi- 

 tion being equivalent to two or more conditional ones. "Either A is B or 

 C is D," means, " if A is not B, C is D ; and if C is not D, A is B." All 

 hypothetical propositions, therefore, though disjunctive in form, are condi- 

 tional in meaning; and the words hypothetical and conditional may be, as 

 indeed they generally are, used synonymously. Propositions in which the 

 assertion is not dependent on a condition, are said, in the language of logi- 

 cians, to be categorical. 



A hypothetical proposition is not, like the pretended complex proposi- 

 tions which we previously considered, a mere aggregation of simple propo- 

 sitions. The simple propositions which form part of the words in which 

 it is couched, form no part of the assertion which it conveys. When we 

 say, If the Koran comes from God, Mohammed is the prophet of God, we 

 do not intend to affirm either that the Koran does come from God, or that 

 Mohammed is really his prophet. Neither of these simple propositions may 

 be true, and yet the truth of the hypothetical proposition may be indis- 

 putable. What is asserted is not the truth of either of the propositions, 

 but the inferribility of the one from the other. What, then, is the subject, 

 and what the predicate of the hypothetical proposition? "The Koran" 

 is not the subject of it, nor is "Mohammed:" for nothing is affirmed or de- 

 nied either of the Koran or of Mohammed. The real subject of the pred- 

 ication is the entire proposition, "Mohammed is the prophet of God;" and 

 the affirmation is, that this is a legitimate inference from the proposi- 

 tion, " The Koran comes from God." The subject and predicate, therefore, 

 of a hypothetical proposition are names of propositions. The subject is 

 some one proposition. The predicate is a general relative name applicable 

 to propositions ; of this form — " an inference from so and so." A fresh 

 instance is here afforded of the remark, that particles are abbreviations ; 

 since "-^A is B, C is D," is found to be an abbreviation of the follow- 

 ing: "The proposition C is D, is a legitimate inference from the j^roposi- 

 tion A is B." 



The distinction, therefore, between hypothetical and categorical proposi- 

 tions is not so great as it at first appears. In the conditional, as well as in 

 the categorical form, one predicate is affirmed of one subject, and no more; 

 but a conditional proposition is a proposition concerning a proposition; 

 the subject of the assertion is itself an assertion. Nor is this a property 

 peculiar to hypothetical propositions. There are other classes of assertions 

 concerning propositions. Like other things, a proposition has attributes 

 which may be predicated of it. The attiibute predicated of it in a hypo- 

 thetical proposition, is that of being an inference from a certain other prop- 

 osition. But this is only one of many attributes that might be predicated. 

 We may say. That the whole is greater than its part, is an axiom in math- 

 ematics : That the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father alone, is a tenet 

 of the Greek Church: The doctrine of the divine right of kings was re- 

 nounced by Parliament at the Revolution : The infallibility of the Pope 

 has no countenance from Scripture. In all these cases the subject of the 

 predication is an entire proposition. That which these different predicates 

 are affirmed of, is <^epro/90s^7^o?^, "the whole is greater than its part;" the 

 proposition^ " the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father alone ;" the ^^ropo- 

 sition^ " kings have a divine right ;" the proposition, " the Pope is infallible." 



Seeing, then, that there is much less difference between hypothetical 

 propositions and any others, than one might be led to imagine from their 



