Traditional classification of proposition into categorical and conditional four –fold classification

"If it rains, the match will be cancelled" and "All lawyers are graduates" are both propositions, but they make very different kinds of claim. One asserts something outright about every member of a class; the other only asserts something on a condition. Traditional logic sorts every proposition into one of these two families, and then sorts the first family again into exactly four types — the A, E, I and O you will use for the rest of this paper.

In two minutes

Traditional logic first divides propositions into categorical (asserting something unconditionally about a class) and conditional (asserting something only on a supposition), and then classifies categorical propositions by quantity (universal or particular) and quality (affirmative or negative) into exactly four forms: A, E, I and O.

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