Logic -- Juvenile literature; Logic, Symbolic and mathematical
And now what am I driving at, in all this long rigmarole? It is
this. You may put "is" or "are" between names of two THINGS (for
example, "some Pigs are fat Animals"), or between the names of two
ATTRIBUTES (for example, "pink is light-red"), and in each case it
will make good sense. But, if you put "is" or "are" between the
name of a THING and the name of an ATTRIBUTE (for example, "some
Pigs are pink"), you do NOT make good sense (for how can a Thing
BE an Attribute?) unless you have an understanding with the person
to whom you are speaking. And the simplest understanding would, I
think, be this--that the Substantive shall be supposed to be repeated
at the end of the sentence, so that the sentence, if written out
in full, would be "some Pigs are pink (Pigs)". And now the word
"are" makes quite good sense.
Thus, in order to make good sense of the Proposition "some new Cakes
are nice", we must suppose it to be written out in full, in the
form "some new Cakes are nice (Cakes)". Now this contains two
'TERMS'--"new Cakes" being one of them, and "nice (Cakes)" the
other. "New Cakes," being the one we are talking about, is called
the 'SUBJECT' of the Proposition, and "nice (Cakes)" the 'PREDICATE'.
Also this Proposition is said to be a 'PARTICULAR' one, since it
does not speak of the WHOLE of its Subject, but only of a PART of
it. The other two kinds are said to be 'UNIVERSAL', because they
speak of the WHOLE of their Subjects--the one denying niceness, and
the other asserting it, of the WHOLE class of "new Cakes". Lastly,
if you would like to have a definition of the word 'PROPOSITION'
itself, you may take this:--"a sentence stating that some, or
none, or all, of the Things belonging to a certain class, called
its 'Subject', are also Things belonging to a certain other class,
called its 'Predicate'".
You will find these seven words--PROPOSITION, ATTRIBUTE, TERM,
SUBJECT, PREDICATE, PARTICULAR, UNIVERSAL--charmingly useful, if
any friend should happen to ask if you have ever studied Logic.
Mind you bring all seven words into your answer, and you friend
will go away deeply impressed--'a sadder and a wiser man'.
Now please to look at the smaller Diagram on the Board, and suppose
it to be a cupboard, intended for all the Cakes in the world (it
would have to be a good large one, of course). And let us suppose
all the new ones to be put into the upper half (marked 'x'), and all
the rest (that is, the NOT-new ones) into the lower half (marked
'x''). Thus the lower half would contain ELDERLY Cakes, AGED
Cakes, ANTE-DILUVIAN Cakes--if there are any: I haven't seen many,
myself--and so on. Let us also suppose all the nice Cakes to be
put into the left-hand half (marked 'y'), and all the rest (that
is, the not-nice ones) into the right-hand half (marked 'y''). At
present, then, we must understand x to mean "new", x' "not-new",
y "nice", and y' "not-nice."
And now what kind of Cakes would you expect to find in compartment
No. 5?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account