Monday, January 28, 2008

De Morgan's types 3

In a comment to Brandon's post about subalternation and existential import I said:

"difference between traditional and modern understanding of the relation between A and I propositions is in a sense similar to the difference between deduction and implication. In deduction we assume premises and are able to deduce conclusion, in implication we don't assume antecedent."

In De Morgan's spicular notation, modified as noted in my previous post (ie. '.' marks particularity), this idea is easy to express. Difference between modern and traditional interpretations of A proposition is "a matter of dot":

S.))P -- traditional interpretation
S))P -- modern interpretation

Dot makes explicit the enthymetical assumption that there are S-s we are talking about. It doesn't matter whether they are real or nominal only.