Comparative Study of Traditional and Modern Classification of Propositions

Two students are handed the same sentence — ‘All witches are dangerous’ — one trained only in the traditional scheme, one in the modern. The traditional student worries whether it presupposes any witches exist at all. The modern student writes (x)(Wx ⊃ Dx) and moves on, unbothered, because her scheme never made that assumption in the first place. Same sentence, two logics, two very different answers — and this topic asks you to hold both in view at once.

In two minutes

The traditional and modern classifications of propositions differ chiefly on four points: existential import (assumed versus not assumed), the range of quantifiers recognised (only 'all'/'some' versus quantifiers over propositional functions), the treatment of singular and relational propositions (forced into categorical form versus handled directly), and the method of symbolisation (verbal categories versus letters, connectives and quantifier symbols).

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