72 NAMES AND PROPOSITIONS. 



serves, is a solecism, of the same nature as that committed by some gram- 

 marians when in their list of genders they enumerate the doubtful gender. 

 The speaker must mean to assert the proposition either as a universal or 

 as a particular proposition, though he has failed to declare which : and it 

 often happens that though the words do not show which of the two he in- 

 tends, the context, or the custom of speech, supplies the deficiency. Thus, 

 when it is affirmed that '* Man is mortal," nobody doubts that the asser- 

 tion is intended of all human beings ; and the word indicative of universal- 

 ity is commonly omitted, only because the meaning is evident without it. 

 In the proposition, " Wine is good," it is understood with equal readiness, 

 though for somewhat different reasons, that the assertion is not intended 

 to be universal, but particular.* As is observed by Professor Bain,f the 

 chief examples of Indefinite propositions occur " with names of material, 

 which are the subjects sometimes of universal, and at other times of partic- 

 ular predication. 'Food is chemically constituted by carbon, oxygen, etc.,' 

 is a proposition of universal quantity; the meaning is all food — all kinds 

 of food. 'Food is necessary to animal life' is a case of particular quan- 

 tity ; the meaning is some sort of food, not necessarily all sorts. ' Metal 

 is requisite in order to strength ' does not mean all kinds of metal. ' Gold 

 will make a way,' means a portion of gold." 



When a general name stands for each and every individual which it is a 

 name of, or in other words, which it denotes, it is said by logicians to be 

 distributed, or taken distributively. Thus, in the proposition. All men are 

 mortal, the subject, Man, is distributed, because mortality is affirmed of 

 each and every man. The predicate. Mortal, is not distributed, because 

 the only mortals who are spoken of in the proposition are those who hap- 

 pen to be men; while the Avord may, for aught that appears, and in fact 

 does, comprehend within it an indefinite number of Objects besides men. 

 In the proposition, Some men are mortal, both the predicate and the sub- 

 ject are undistributed. In the following, No men have wings, both the 

 predicate and the subject are distributed. Not only is the attribute of 

 having wings denied of the entire class Man, but that class is severed and 

 cast out from the whole of the class Winged, and not merely from some 

 part of that class. 



This phraseology, which is of great service in stating and demonstrating 

 the rules of the syllogism, enables us to express very concisely the defini- 

 tions of a universal' and a particular pi-oposition, A universal proposition 

 is that of which the subject is distributed ; a particular proposition is that 

 of which the subject is undistributed. 



There are many more distinctions among propositions than those we 

 have here stated, some of them of considerable importance. But, for ex- 

 plaining and illustrating these, more suitable opportunities will occur in the 

 sequel. 



* It may, however, be considered as equivalent to a universal proposition with a different 

 predicate, viz. : "All wine is good qua wine," or "is good in respect of the qualities which 

 constitute it wine." 



t Logic, i., 82. 



