Kant on Existential Import

Abstract

AbstractThis article reconstructs Kant's view on the existential import of categorical sentences. Kant is widely taken to have held that affirmative sentences (theAandIsentences of the traditional square of opposition) have existential import, whereas negative sentences (EandO) lack existential import. The article challenges this standard interpretation. It is argued that Kant ascribes existential import only to some affirmative synthetic sentences. However, the reasons for this do not fall within the remit of Kant's formal logic. Unlike traditional logic and modern standard quantification theory, Kant's formal logic is free from existential commitments.