Judgment is a form of thinking, affirming or denying anything about the existence of objects, about the connections between them and their properties, as well as about the relations between objects.
Examples of judgments: “Volga flows into the Caspian Sea”, “A.S. Pushkin wrote the poem The Bronze Horseman, The Ussuri tiger is listed in the Red Book, etc.
Structure of judgment
The judgment includes the following elements: subject, predicate, connective, and quantifier.
- Subject (lat. Subjektum - “underlying”) - what is said in this statement, its subject (“S”).
- A predicate (lat. Praedicatum - “spoken”) is a reflection of the attribute of an object, what is said about the subject of judgment (“P”).
- Ligament - the relationship between the subject ("S") and the predicate ("P"). Determines the presence / absence in the subject of any property expressed in the predicate. It can be either implied or indicated by the sign “dash” or the words “is” (“is not”), “is”, “is”, “essence”, etc.
- A quantifier (quantifier word) determines the scope of a concept to which the subject of judgment belongs. Facing the subject, but may also be absent from judgment. It is designated by such words as “all”, “many”, “some”, “none”, “nobody”, etc.
True and False Judgments
The judgment is true in the case when the presence of signs, properties and relations of objects affirmed / denied in the judgment is true. For example: “All swallows are birds,” “9 is greater than 2,” etc.
If the statement contained in the judgment does not correspond to reality, we are dealing with a false judgment: “The sun revolves around the Earth”, “A kilogram of iron is heavier than a kilogram of wool”, etc. Correct judgments form the basis of correct conclusions.
However, in addition to two-valued logic, in which a judgment can be either true or false, there is also multidimensional logic. According to its conditions, the judgment may also be vague. This is especially true of future individual judgments: “Tomorrow will / will not happen a sea battle” (Aristotle, “On the Interpretation”). If we assume that this is a true proposition, then the naval battle tomorrow can no longer happen. Therefore, it is necessary for it to happen. Or vice versa: asserting that this judgment is false at the moment, we make necessary the impossibility of tomorrow’s naval battle.
Propositional type judgments
As is known, three types of sentences are distinguished by type of utterance : narrative, incentive, and interrogative. For example, the sentence “I remember a wonderful moment” refers to the narrative type. It is advisable to suggest that such a judgment would also be narrative. It contains certain information, reports on a specific event.
In turn, the interrogative sentence contains a question that implies the answer: “What is the coming day preparing for me?” However, it does not state or deny anything. Accordingly, the assertion that such a judgment is interrogative is erroneous. The interrogative sentence, in principle, does not contain a judgment, since the question cannot be differentiated by the principle of truth / falsity.
An incentive type of proposal is formed when there is a certain incentive to action, a request or a ban: "Rise, the prophet, and see, and heed." As for judgments, according to some researchers, they are not contained in sentences of this type. Others believe that we are talking about a variety of modal judgments.
Quality of judgment
In terms of quality, judgments can be either affirmative (S is P) or negative (S is not P). In the case of an affirmative statement, with the help of a predicate, the subject is given a certain property (-wa). For example: "Leonardo da Vinci is an Italian painter, architect, sculptor, scientist, naturalist, as well as an inventor and writer, the largest representative of the Renaissance art."
In a negative judgment, on the contrary, the property is taken away from the subject: “The theory of the 25th frame of James Vickery has no experimental confirmation.”
Quantitative characteristic
Judgments in logic can be of a general nature (relating to all objects of a given class), particular (to some of them) and individual (when it comes to an object that exists in a single copy). For example, it can be argued that a judgment such as “All cats are sulfur at night” will refer to the general view, since it affects all feline representatives (subject of judgment). The statement “Some snakes are not poisonous” is an example of private judgment. In turn, the judgment “Chudniy Dnepr in calm weather” is an isolated one, since we are talking about one specific river that exists in a single form.
Simple and complex judgments
Depending on the structure, the judgment may be simple or complex. The structure of a simple judgment includes two related concepts (SP): “A book is a source of knowledge”. There are also judgments with one concept - when the second is only implied: “It was getting dark” (P).
A complex view is formed by combining several simple judgments.
Classification of simple judgments
Simple judgments in logic can be of the following types: attributive, judgments with relationships, existential, modal.
Attributive (judgments-properties) are aimed at affirming / denying the presence of certain properties (attributes), types of activity in an object . These judgments are categorical and are not in doubt: “The mammalian nervous system consists of the brain, spinal cord and outgoing nerve pathways.”
In judgments with relations, certain relations between objects are considered. They can have a spatio-temporal context, cause-effect, etc. For example: “An old friend is better than the new two,” “Hydrogen is 22 times lighter than carbon dioxide.”
An existential proposition is a statement of the existence / non-existence of an object (both material and ideal): “There is no prophet in his own country,” “The moon is the satellite of the earth.”
A modal proposition is a form of statement containing a certain modal operator (necessary, good / bad; proven, known / unknown, forbidden, believe, etc.). For instance:
- “Educational reform is necessary in Russia” (an aletic modality is an opportunity, a need for something).
- “Everyone has the right to personal inviolability” (deontic modality - moral standards of social behavior).
- “A careless attitude to state property leads to its loss” (axiological modality - attitude to material and spiritual values).
- “We believe in your innocence” (epistemic modality - the degree of reliability of knowledge).
Complex judgments and types of logical connectives
As already noted, complex judgments consist of several simple ones. As logical connectives between them are such techniques as:
- Conjunction (and ʌ b are connective judgments). Judgments-conjuncts have a bunch of “and”: “The exercise of the rights and freedoms of man and citizen should not violate the rights and freedoms of others”.
- Disjunction (avb - separation judgments). Disjunctive judgments are used as constituent elements, the union “or” is used as a bundle. For example: “The plaintiff has the right to increase or decrease the size of claims.”
- Implication (a → b - proposition-consequence). If the premise and the consequence are distinguished in the structure of a complex judgment, then it can be argued that such a judgment is implicative. As a link in this form, such unions as “if ... then” are used. For example: “If an electric current is passed through a conductor, then the conductor will heat up”, “If you want to be happy, be it.”
- Equivalence (a ≡ b - identical judgments). It occurs when the values of a and b coincide (either both are true or both are false): "Man is created for happiness, like a bird for flight."
- Denial (¬a, ā - judgment-inversion). Each initial statement is associated with a compound statement that denies the original. It is carried out using a bunch of "not." Accordingly, if the initial statement looks like this: “The bull reacts to red light” (a) - then the negation will sound like: “The bull DOES not react to red light” (¬a).