The Forms of Categorical Proposition

Abstract

An exhaustive survey of categorical propositions is proposed in the present paper, both with respect to their nature and the logical problems raised by them. Through a comparative analysis of Term Logic and First-Order Logic, it is shown that the famous problem of existential import may be solved in two ways: with a model-adaptive strategy, in which the square of opposition is validated by restricting the models; with a language-adaptive strategy, in which the logical form of categorical propositions is extended in order to validate the square in every model. The latter strategy is advocated in the name of logic, which means truth in every model. Finally, the present paper needs some automatic process in order to determine the nature of logical relations between any pair of the available 256 categorical propositions. This requires the implementation of a programming machine in the style of Prolog.