Handbook of the History of Logic: - Fordham University Faculty

270 Terence Parsons
DEFAULT: A main term of a proposition has determinate supposition
unless something causes it not to. A particular affirmative sign adjoined
to a term gives it determinate supposition (or, equivalently, has
no effect). In either case, any terms to the right and within the scope
of the denoting phrase containing the term retain the mode of supposition
they already have, except that a wide distributed term becomes
narrow distributive.
UA: A universal affirmative sign widely distributes the term it is adjoined
to and makes any other term to its right merely confused if it is
determinate, leaving terms with the other modes unchanged.
UN: A universal negative sign widely distributes the term it is adjoined
to; if a term following the universal negative sign has determinate supposition
it, becomes wide distributed; if the term has wide distribution
it becomes merely confused; if the term has merely confused supposition
it becomes narrowly distributed, and if it has narrow distribution
it becomes merely confused.
NEG: A negating negation has the following effect on any main term
following it and in its scope:
if the term is determinate it becomes wide distributed, and
vice versa;
if the term is merely confused it becomes narrowly distributed,
and vice versa
All provisions except for the first and last are consistent with the earlier rules,
though they provide more detailed information. The previous version of the last
rule said that if a term has distributed supposition then the negation makes it
merely confused (according to Buridan) or determinate (according to Ockham).
On the new account if the term has narrow distribution it becomes merely confused,
as Buridan said, and if it has wide distribution it becomes determinate, as
Ockham said. Two examples we looked at earlier were these:
Not: no man runs
Not: some farmer sees every donkey
The new rules correctly classify ‘man’ as having determinate supposition in the
first proposition, and they correctly classify ‘donkey’ as having merely confused
supposition in the second proposition.
9.4 Global Quantificational Import
9.4.1 What are the modes of common personal supposition?
This is a long-standing problem in the secondary literature: We have definitions
of the modes, but what are we defining?