SUPPOSITION OF TERMS

                Supposition is the property by which a term stands for a definite one of the various things it can stand for (Bacchuber, 1957, p.230). A term can stand as a material image, as a subject or predicate of a sentence, as something pertaining a reality, or as pertaining to something or someone in reality.

Consider these examples:

1.       Chair has five letters.

2.       Chair is an absolute concept.

3.       Chair is a furniture.

4.       A chair is used to block the pathway.

In Example 1, “chair” stands as a material image, the word itself. In Example 2, “chair” stands for an essence or whatness that exists only in the mind; that is because the whatness of “chair” in this example cannot be “absolute concept” except only in the mind. In Example 3, “chair” stands for it real essence or whatness because it tells us what the chair really is. It must be noted that in this example the supposition of “chair” does not actually imply an actual existence of a chair.[1] In Example 4, however, “chair” stands for an actually existing chair. Yet in all four examples, “chair” has exactly the same meaning, signification, and definition; that is, the examples do not indicate equivocal meanings of the term “chair”.

                Shift in suppositions of terms in reasoning will lead us into error. Thus, to avoid this kind of error, it is important to be able to identify the supposition of a particular term in a particular statement.

                Consider this invalid argument:

Philosophy means love of wisdom. Existentialism is a philosophy. Hence, existentialism means love of wisdom.

                One who does not know anything about supposition will readily claim that this argument is valid. However, deeper analysis will show that this argument is invalid. We will explain why this is so after we discussed the kinds of supposition.

KINDS OF SUPPOSITION

A.      Material Supposition

It is the use of a term for the spoken or written sign itself, but not for what it signifies (Bacchuber, 1957, p.231). In the following examples, the supposition of “chair” is material: “Chair rhymes with hair,” and “Chair has R as its last letter”. In all these usages, chair is really a furniture, but the fact that chair’s being a furniture has nothing to do with the fact chair rhymes with hair, or that its last letter is R. Hence, in these examples we only consider the material make up of the word “chair”.

B.      Formal Supposition

Formal supposition is the use of a term not for the sign itself, but for what it signifies. In the example “Chair is a furniture”, chair has a formal supposition because it is not the word chair that is a furniture but what the chair signifies that is a furniture.

Types of Formal Supposition

1.       Logical Supposition

It is the use of a term for what it signifies not as it exists in the real order but as it exists only in the mind. For example, “chair” can signify as concept, as a subject of a sentence, as inferior to the term “furniture”, etc., but in all of these significations, “chair” does not refer to the chair in the real order but to the chair that is a product of mental construct.

Other examples:

        Man is an absolute concept.

        Elephant is the subject of the sentence “No elephants are pink”.

        Monkey is inferior to the term mammal.

2.       Real Supposition

It is the use of a term for what it signifies in the real order. The supposition of chair is real in the sentence, “The chair is used to block the pathway” because it refers to something in the real order.

Other examples:

        Man is a rational animal.

        Elephant is a mammal with long proboscis.

        This monkey is a primate.

Real supposition is on one hand, either absolute or personal, and on the other hand, either essential or accidental.

        Types of Real Supposition

a.       Absolute and Personal

A real supposition is absolute if it is used to refer to the whatness or essence as such and not to something or someone that bears this whatness or essence. For example, in the sentence “Man is rational”, man refers not to anyone but to the essence of man as such.

        Other examples:

                        Elephant is a mammal with long proboscis.

                        Chair is a furniture designed as a single seat.

                        Kindness is the highest virtue.

A real supposition is personal if it is used to refer not to the whatness or essence as such but to something or someone that bears this whatness or essence. In the sentence “The man is rational”, man refers to someone who has the essence of “man”; hence, it is personal.

        Other examples:

                        The elephant I saw yesterday has a very long proboscis.

                        A chair is used to block the pathway.

                        These persons are innocent.

It is very important to note that statements using terms with absolute supposition do not assert the actual existence of the terms’ signified objects. For example, the sentence “Superman is a superhero” does not imply the existence of Superman in reality. This is not true, however, in statements using terms with personal supposition. For example, the statement “Superman saved Mary Jane” implies the existence of Superman in the actual order.

b.      Essential and Accidental

A real supposition is essential if the term is predicated of essential attributes, i.e., attributes that make a thing or a substance what it is. In the sentence “Man is rational”, man has an essential supposition because rational is an essential attribute that makes man as man.

        Other examples:

                        The elephant is a mammal with long proboscis.

                        Chair is a furniture.

                        All men are mortals.

A real supposition is accidental is the term is predicated of accidental attributes, i.e., attributes that do not make a thing or substance what it is. In the sentence, “A man took his seat”, man has an accidental supposition because taking a seat is not what makes man as man.

        Other examples:

                        Elephants can be used in circuses.

                        The man has a dirty face.

                        Birds migrate from one continent to another.

Exercise (taken from Bacchuber, 1957, p.235)

Which of the kinds of supposition treated in this section are illustrated by “man” (or “men”) in each of the following propositions?

1.       Man is a rational animal.

2.       Man is one syllable.

3.       Man is a universal concept.

4.       Man is predicable of many in exactly the same sense.

5.       Man is a creature.

6.       All men are mortal.

7.       Man is mortal.

8.       This man is mortal.

9.       Man exists and has existed for many thousands of years.

10.   Take man away from woman and all you have left is wo.

11.   Some men are singing.

12.   “Some men” is the subject of the last proposition.

13.   A man is a week and sinful creature.

14.   A man made those footprints.

15.   Man has three letters.

---

[1] For another example, consider the sentence “Superman is a superhero.” The term “superman” has the same supposition with that of Example 3; and as what we said with that example, this same example does not imply the actual existence of its subject. However, if the sentence is “Superman went to New York”, the supposition of “superman” here implies the actual existence of “superman” which is the same with that of Example 4.