On 3/21/2019 5:58 PM, Jon Alan Schmidt wrote:
JFS: No version of logic after syllogisms made a binary distinction
between subject and predicate.
That statement is false. According to my dictionary, a "subject"
is defined as "the term of a logical proposition that denotes the
entity of which something is affirmed or denied," and a "predicate"
is defined as "something that is affirmed or denied of the subject
in a proposition in logic."
As I said, you pick random quotations out of context and apply them
without considering whether they are relevant to the issue.
I don't know what dictionary you have chosen, but that definition
is true of the traditional Aristotelian-Scholastic syllogisms, which
dominated logic teaching until the early 20th century. But there are
still some excellent textbooks which teach that logic. For example,
Rauh, Sister Miriam Joseph (1937) The Trivium: The Liberal Arts
of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric, Third edition 1948, reprinted by
Paul Dry Books, 2002.
Nearly all modern logics are based on predicate calculus, which is
derived from Peirce's algebra of 1885. The syntax of those logics
use the words 'function', 'predicate', 'operator', 'quantifier',
'type', 'variable', 'identifier', and a few others. But they do
not use the word 'subject'. See the history by Hilary Putnam:
http://jfsowa.com/peirce/putnam.htm
There are many variants that use other terminology. But the only
versions that use the word 'subject' are revivals of syllogisms
or versions "controlled natural languages" (CNLs), that use a
grammar that is similar in structure to a natural language.
John
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