IMPORT OF PROPOSITIONS. 



55 



gender. The speaker must mean to 

 assert the proposition either as an 

 universal or as a particular proposi- 

 tion, though he has failed to declare 

 which : and it often happens that 

 though the words do not show which 

 of the two he intends, the context, or 

 the custom of speech, supplies the 

 deficiency. Thus, when it is affirmed 

 that " Man is mortal," nobody doubts 

 that the assertion is intended of all 

 human beings ; and the word indi- 

 cative of universality is commonly 

 emitted, only because the meaning is 

 evident without it. In the proposition, 

 "Wine is good," it is understood with 

 «qual readiness, though for somewhat 

 different reasons, that the assertion ia 

 not intended to be universal, but 

 particular.* As is observed by Pro- 

 fessor Bain,t the chief examples of 

 Indefinite propositions occur "with 

 names of material, which are the sub- 

 jects sometimes of universal, and at 

 other times of particular predication. 

 'Fcod is chemically constituted by 

 carbon, oxygen, &c.,' 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 quantity ; 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 distHbuted, or taken distributively. 

 Thus, in the proposition. All men 

 are mortal, the subject, Man, is dis- 

 tributed, because mortality is aflBrmed 

 of each and every man. The predi- 

 cate. Mortal, is not distributed, 

 because the only mortals who are 

 spoken of in the proposition are those 



* It may, however, be considered as 

 equivalent to an universal proposition with 

 a different predicate, viz. "All wine is 

 good qiid wine," or " is good in respect of 

 the qualities which consti*iute it wine." 



t Logic, i. 82. 



who happen to be men ; while the 

 word 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 pre- 

 dicate and the subject are undis- 

 tributed. 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 an universal and a particular 

 proposition. An universal proposi- 

 tion is that of which the subject is 

 distributed ; a particular proposition 

 is that of which the subject is un- 

 distributed. 



There are many more distinctions 

 among propositions than those we 

 have here stated, some of them of 

 considerable importance. But, for 

 explaining and illustrating these, more 

 suitable opportunities will occur in 

 the sequel. 



CHAPTER V. 



OF THE IMPORT OF PROPOSITIONS. 



§ I. An inquiry into the nature of 

 propositions must have one of two 

 objects : to analyse the state of mind 

 called Belief, or to analyse what is 

 believed. All language recognises a 

 difference between a doctrine or 

 opinion, and the fact of entertaining 

 the opinion ; between assent, and 

 what is assented to. 



Logic, according to the conception 

 here formed of it, has no concern 

 with the nature of the act of judging 

 or believing; the consideration of 

 that act, as a phenomenon of the 

 mind, belongs to another science. 



