CHAPTER 4

JUDGEMENT AND PROPOSITION

OBJECTIVE: This module will help students:

1.determine how judgments are made.
2.define a categorical propositions and give examples for it.
3.construct and distinguish categorical propositions according to logical structure.
4.distinguish a universal proposition from a particular proposition.

a.TOPIC 4- Meaning of judgement and proposition

Judgment is an act in which the mind pronounces the agreement or disagreement of ideas among
themselves. It is an act in which the intellect affirms or denies one idea of another. For instance, our intellect
may relate the ideas this dog and Dalmatian and affirm, This dog is a Dalmatian. This is an example of a
judgment expressed in a proposition. The proposition therefore is the oral or written expression of the
judgment. Often used interchangeably with statement, it as a verbal expression proclaiming a truth or falsity.

Truth and falsity

Truth, is the agreement of a judgment with reality, falsity, the disagreement.If a proposition coincides with
reality, it is true and, if not, it is false. The truth of a proposition is verified by comparing it with the reality it is
supposed to express. To state, The author of this lecture is a woman is false, while to propose, This lecture is
about Logic is true. The "test" of truth is, therefore, agreement of the judgment with reality. We refer to this
as objective evidence and thus our criterion of truth.
Nonetheless, there are statements that are considered true because other propositions verified as true
serve as their bases. Such truths are affirmed by the logical process called inference. By inference, we mean
proceeding from the truth-value of one or more propositions to the truth-value of another pertinent and
consequential proposition. Thus, when we affirmed that Hachiko is a dog, we can infer that Hachiko is a
mammal. (More of this will be discussed under the topic ‘Reasoning and Inference’). In this sense, inference
can also be considered a pathway to truth.

b.CONTENT- Quality and Quantity of Categorical Proposition

In logic, a categorical proposition, or categorical statement, is a proposition that asserts or denies that all or
some of the members of one category (the subject term) are included in another (the predicate term).[1] The
study of arguments using categorical statements (i.e., syllogisms) forms an important branch of deductive
reasoning that began with the Ancient Greeks.
The Ancient Greeks such as Aristotle identified four primary distinct types of categorical proposition and gave
them standard forms (now often called A, E, I, and O). If, abstractly, the subject category is named S and the
predicate category is named P, the four standard forms are:

 All S are P. (A form)
 No S are P. (E form)
 Some S are P. (I form)
 Some S are not P. (O form)
A surprisingly large number of sentences may be translated into one of these canonical forms while retaining
all or most of the original meaning of the sentence. Greek investigations resulted in the so-called square of
opposition, which codifies the logical relations among the different forms; for example, that an A-statement
is contradictory to an O-statement; that is to say, for example, if one believes "All apples are red fruits," one
cannot simultaneously believe that "Some apples are not red fruits." Thus the relationships of the square of
opposition may allow immediate inference, whereby the truth or falsity of one of the forms may follow
directly from the truth or falsity of a statement in another form.
Modern understanding of categorical propositions (originating with the mid-19th century work of George
Boole) requires one to consider if the subject category may be empty. If so, this is called the hypothetical
viewpoint, in opposition to the existential viewpoint which requires the subject category to have at least one
member. The existential viewpoint is a stronger stance than the hypothetical and, when it is appropriate to
take, it allows one to deduce more results than otherwise could be made. The hypothetical viewpoint, being
the weaker view, has the effect of removing some of the relations present in the traditional square of
opposition.
Arguments consisting of three categorical propositions — two as premises and one as conclusion — are
known as categorical syllogisms and were of paramount importance from the times of ancient Greek
logicians through the Middle Ages. Although formal arguments using categorical syllogisms have largely given
way to the increased expressive power of modern logic systems like the first-order predicate calculus, they
still retain practical value in addition to their historic and pedagogical significance.

Categorical propositions can be categorized into four types on the basis of their "quality" and "quantity",
or their "distribution of terms". These four types have long been named A, E, I and O. This is based on
the Latin affirmo (I affirm), referring to the affirmative propositions A and I, and nego (I deny), referring
to the negative propositions E and O.

Quantity and quality

Quantity refers to the amount of members of the subject class that are used in the proposition. If the
proposition refers to all members of the subject class, it is universal. If the proposition does not employ
all members of the subject class, it is particular. For instance, an I-proposition ("Some S are P") is
particular since it only refers to some of the members of the subject class.

Quality refers to whether the proposition affirms or denies the inclusion of a subject within the class of
the predicate. The two possible qualities are called affirmative and negative.[3] For instance, an A-
proposition ("All S are P") is affirmative since it states that the subject is contained within the predicate.
On the other hand, an O-proposition ("Some S are not P") is negative since it excludes the subject from
the predicate.

Name Statement Quantity Quality

A All S are P. universal affirmative

E No S are P. universal negative

I Some S are P. particular affirmative

O Some S are not P. particular negative

An important consideration is the definition of the word some. In logic, some refers to "one or more",

which could mean "all". Therefore, the statement "Some S are P" does not guarantee that the statement
"Some S are not P" is also true.