A System of Logic: Ratiocinative and Inductive, 7th Edition, Vol. I
John Stuart Mill · en
The distinction, therefore, between hypothetical and categorical
propositions, is not so great as it at first appears. In the
conditional, as well as in the categorical form, one predicate is
affirmed of one subject, and no more: but a conditional proposition is a
proposition concerning a proposition; the subject of the assertion is
itself an assertion. Nor is this a property peculiar to hypothetical
propositions. There are other classes of assertions concerning
propositions. Like other things, a proposition has attributes which may
be predicated of it. The attribute predicated of it in an hypothetical
proposition, is that of being an inference from a certain other
proposition. But this is only one of many attributes that might be
predicated. We may say, That the whole is greater than its part, is an
axiom in mathematics: That the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father
alone, is a tenet of the Greek Church: The doctrine of the divine right
of kings was renounced by Parliament at the Revolution: The
infallibility of the Pope has no countenance from Scripture. In all
these cases the subject of the predication is an entire proposition.
That which these different predicates are affirmed of, is _the
proposition_, "the whole is greater than its part;" _the proposition_,
"the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father alone;" _the proposition_,
"kings have a 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 we did
not remember that what they predicate of a proposition, namely, its
being an inference 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
Universal, 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:
_All men_ are mortal-- Universal.
_Some men_ are mortal-- Particular.
_Man_ is mortal-- Indefinite.
_Julius Cæsar_ 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."