On Explaining the Meaning of the Universal, the Particular, the Indefinite and the Singular [Connective-]Conditional Proposition

Abstract

Just as it is thought that connective propositions contradict or oppose each other in respect of their parts; so also with their being universal, particular, indefinite and singular; for these forms of connective propositions are thought to be what they are because of their parts. They said: Just as universal predicative premisses are those which have universal subjects and predicates; so also with universal connective premisses: they are universal because their antecedents and consequents are universai. Thus, the sentence ‘If every A is B, then every H is Z’ is, for these people, a universal conditional premiss. A more satisfactory examination of the above example would have led them to the right course. For a predicative proposition is considered universal because the judgment which says that something is predicated of another is universal, and not because its subject and predicate are universal. What corresponds to the statement of predication in conditional propositions is the statement that something is connected or is in conflict with another. Just as it is necessary in predicative propositions to inspect the judgment not the terms which are the constituent parts of the judgment; so also with connective propositions: what is to be inspected is the judgment not the constituent parts of the judgment.