54 



NAMES AND PHOPOSITIONS. 



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 

 form, we should be at a loss to account 

 for the conspicuous position which 

 they have been selected to fill in 

 treatises on logic, if he did not re- 

 member that what they predicate of a 

 proposition, namely, its being an in- 

 ference from something else, is precisely 

 that one of its attributes with which 

 most of all a logician is concerned. 



§ 4. The next of the common 

 divisions of Propositions is into Uni- 

 versal, Particular, Indefinite, and 

 Singular : a distinction founded on 

 the degree of generality in which the 

 name, which is the subject of the 

 proposition, is to be understood. The 

 following are examples : 



AU men are mortal — Universal. 



Some men are mortal — Particular. 



Man is mortal — Indefinite. 



Julim Ccesar is mortal — Singular. 



The proposition is Singular when 

 the subject is an individual name. 

 The individual name needs not be 

 a proper name. "The Founder of 

 Christianity was crucified," is as much 

 a singular proposition as " Christ was 

 crucified." 



When the name which is the sub- 

 ject of the proposition is a general 

 name, we may intend to affirm or 

 deny the predicate, either of all the 

 things that the subject denotes, or 

 only of some. When the predicate 

 is affirmed or denied of all and each 

 of the things denoted by the siibject, 

 the proposition is universal ; when of 

 some undefined portion of them only, 

 it is particular. Thus, All men are 

 mortal ; Every man is mortal ; are 

 universal propositions. No man is 

 immortal, is also an universal propo- 

 sition, since the predicate, immortal, 

 is denied of each and every individual 

 denoted by the term man ; the nega- 

 tive proposition being exactly equiva- 



lent to the following. Every man is 

 not-immortal. But "some men are 

 wise," "some men are not wise," are 

 particular propositions ; the predicate 

 tdse being in the one case affirmed 

 and in the other denied not of each 

 and every individual denoted by the 

 term man, but only of each and every 

 one of some portion of those indivi- 

 duals, without specifying what por- 

 tion ; for if this were specified, the 

 proposition would be changed either 

 into a singular proposition, or into an 

 universal proposition with a different 

 subject ; as, for instance, '^ all properly 

 instructed men are wise, " There are 

 other forms of particular propositions ; 

 as, ^^ Most men are imperfectly edu- 

 cated : " it being immaterial how large 

 a portion of the subject the predicate 

 is asserted of, as long as it is left un- 

 certain how that portion is to be dis- 

 tinguished from the rest.* 



When the form of expression does 

 not clearly show whether the general 

 name which is the subject of the pro- 

 position is meant to stand for all the 

 individuals denoted by it, or only for 

 some of them, the proposition is, by 

 some logicians, called Indefinite ; 

 but this, as Archbishop Whately 

 observes, is a solecism, of the same 

 nature as that committed by some 

 grammarians when in their list of 

 genders they enumerate the doubtful 



* Instead of Universal and Particular, as 

 applied to propositions, Professor Bain pro- 

 poses (Logic, i. 81) the terms Total and 

 Partial ; reserving the former pair of terms 

 for their inductive meaninpr, " the contrast 

 between a general proposition and the par- 

 ticulars or iTidividuals that we derive it 

 from." This change in nomenclature would 

 be attended with the further advantage, 

 that Singular propositions, which in tiie 

 Syllogism follow the same rules as Uni- 

 versal, would be included along with them 

 in the same class, that of Total predica- 

 tions. It is not the Subject's denoting 

 many things or only one, that is of im- 

 portance in reasoning, it is that tlu^ asser- 

 tion is made of the whole or a part only of 

 what the Subject denotes. The words 

 Universal and Particular, however, are so 

 familiar and so well understood in both 

 the senses mentioned by Mr. Bain, that 

 the double meaning does not produce any 

 material inconvenience. 



