Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
indefinite proposition
References
Britannica AI Icon

indefinite proposition

logic
Written by
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Information Architects maintain a master list of the topics included in the corpus of  Encyclopædia Britannica, and create and manage the relationships between them.
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last updated

Quick Summary

In logic, an indefinite proposition is a statement where the subject is a common term without any indication of distribution or nondistribution. An example is "the Chinese eat rice". This contrasts with categorical propositions, which are statements where the predicate is affirmed or denied of all or part of the subject. Categorical propositions have four basic forms: "Every S is P," "No S is P," "Some S is P," and "Some S is not P".12

An infinite proposition, on the other hand, is a logical proposition that has an indefinite negative predicate. The study of logic, including propositions, was systematically undertaken by Aristotle, whose work laid the foundation for understanding different types of logical statements.34

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
5 Britannica Sources
  1. categorical proposition
  2. history of logic - Categorical forms
  3. infinite proposition
  4. indefinite proposition
  5. propositional function

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.