i.e. among the possible causes of suffering on the part of subjects is
to be found the ambition of their rulers, even if every actual case
should be referred to some other cause. It is in this sense only that
the inference is a necessary one. But then this is the only sense
which formal logic is competent to recognise. To judge of conformity
to fact is no part of its province. From 'Every AB is a CD' it follows
that ' Some CD's are AB's' with exactly the same necessity as that
with which 'Some B is A' follows from 'All A is B.' In the latter case
also neither proposition may at all conform to fact. From 'All
centaurs are animals' it follows necessarily that 'Some animals are
centaurs': but as a matter of fact this is not true at all.
§ 714. The E and the I proposition may be converted simply, as above.
§ 715. O cannot be converted at all. From the proposition
'If a man runs a race, he sometimes does not win it,'
it certainly does not follow that
'If a man wins a race, he sometimes does not run it.'
§ 716. There is a common but erroneous notion that all conditional
propositions are to be regarded as affirmative. Thus it has been
asserted that, even when we say that 'If the night becomes cloudy,
there will be no dew,' the proposition is not to be regarded as
negative, on the ground that what we affirm is a relation between the
cloudiness of night and the absence of dew. This is a possible, but
wholly unnecessary, mode of regarding the proposition. It is precisely
on a par with Hobbes's theory of the copula in a simple proposition
being always affirmative. It is true that it may always be so
represented at the cost of employing a negative term; and the same is
the case here.
§ 717. There is no way of converting a disjunctive proposition except
by reducing it to the conjunctive form.
§ 718. _Permutation of Complex Propositions_.
(A) If A is B, C is always D.
.'. If A is B, C is never not-D. (E)
(E) If A is B, C is never D.
.'. If A is B, C is always not-D. (A)
(I) If A is B, C is sometimes D.
.'. If A is B, C is sometimes not not-D. (O)
(O) If A is B, C is sometimes not D.
.'. If A is B, C is sometimes not-D. (I)
§ 719.
(A) If a mother loves her children, she is always kind to them.
.'. If a mother loves her children, she is never unkind to
them. (E)
(E) If a man tells lies, his friends never trust him.
.'. If a man tells lies, his friends always distrust him. (A)
(I) If strangers are confident, savage dogs are sometimes friendly.
.'. If strangers are confident, savage dogs are sometimes not
unfriendly. (O)
(O) If a measure is good, its author is sometimes not popular.
.'. If a measure is good, its author is sometimes
unpopular. (I)
§ 720. The disjunctive proposition may be permuted as it stands
without being reduced to the conjunctive form.
Either A is B or C is D.
.'. Either A is B or C is not not-D.
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