Judgment is a form of thinking that affirms or denies something about the existence of objects, about the connections between them and their properties, as well as about the relationships 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
A judgment includes the following elements: subject, predicate, connective and quantifier.
- Subject (lat. subjektum - "underlying") - what is said in this judgment, its subject ("S").
- Predicate (lat. praedicatum - "said") - a reflection of the attribute of the subject, what is said about the subject of the judgment ("P").
- Link is a relationship between a subject ("S") and a predicate ("P"). Determines the presence / absence of the subject of any property expressed in the predicate. It can be both implied and indicated by the dash sign or the words “is” (“is not”), “has”, “is”, “essence”, etc.
- Quantifier (quantifier word) determines the scope of the concept to which the subject of judgment belongs. Stands in front of the subject, but may also be absent injudgment. Indicated by words such as "all", "many", "some", "none", "none", etc.
True and False Judgments
A judgment is true when the presence of signs, properties and relations of objects, affirmed / denied in the judgment, corresponds to reality. For example: “All swallows are birds”, “9 is more than 2”, etc.
If the statement contained in the judgment is not true, we are dealing with a false judgment: “The sun revolves around the Earth”, “A kilogram of iron is heavier than a kilogram of cotton 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 terms, the judgment can also be indefinite. This is especially true for future single judgments: “Tomorrow there will be / will not happen a naval battle” (Aristotle, “On Interpretation”). If we assume that this is a true judgment, then a naval battle cannot fail to take place tomorrow. Therefore, it needs to happen. Or vice versa: by asserting that this judgment is currently false, we thereby make necessary the impossibility of tomorrow's naval battle.
Judgments by type of statement
As you know, there are three types of sentences according to the type of utterance: narrative, incentive and interrogative. For example, the sentence "I remember a wonderful moment" refers toto the narrative type. It is reasonable to suggest that such a judgment would also be narrative. It contains certain information, reports a certain event.
In turn, the interrogative sentence contains a question that implies the answer: “What does the coming day prepare for me?” It neither states nor denies anything. Accordingly, the assertion that such a judgment is interrogative is erroneous. An interrogative sentence, in principle, does not contain a judgment, since the question cannot be differentiated according to the principle of truth/falsehood.
The incentive type of sentences is formed when there is a certain impulse to action, a request or a prohibition: "Arise, prophet, and see, and listen." As for judgments, according to some researchers, they are not contained in sentences of this type. Others believe that we are talking about a kind of modal judgments.
Quality of judgment
From the point of view of quality, judgments can be either affirmative (S is P) or negative (S is not P). In the case of an affirmative proposition, a certain property(s) is attached to the subject with the help of a predicate. For example: "Leonardo da Vinci is an Italian painter, architect, sculptor, scientist, naturalist, as well as an inventor and writer, the largest representative of Renaissance art."
In a negative proposition, on the contrary, the property is subtracted from the subject:experimental confirmation.”
Quantitative characteristics
Judgments in logic can be general (referring to all objects of a given class), private (to some of them) and singular (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 gray at night" would be generic because it affects all felines (the subject of the judgment). The statement “Some snakes are not poisonous” is an example of a private judgment. In turn, the judgment “The Dnieper is wonderful in calm weather” is a single 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 of the simple or complex type. The structure of a simple proposition includes two related concepts (S-P): "A book is a source of knowledge." There are also judgments with one concept - when the second is only implied: "Darkness" (P).
A complex form is formed by combining several simple propositions.
Classification of simple judgments
Simple judgments in logic can be of the following types: attributive, judgments with relations, existential, modal.
Attributive (property judgments) are aimed at affirming/denying that an object has certain properties (attributes), activities. These judgments have a categorical form and are not questioned: “The nervous system of mammals consists of the brain, spinalbrain and outgoing nerve pathways.”
Relational judgments consider certain relationships between objects. They can have a spatio-temporal context, causal, etc. For example: “An old friend is better than two new ones”, “Hydrogen is 22 times lighter than carbon dioxide.”
An existential judgment 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 a satellite of the Earth.”
Modal proposition is a form of statement that contains a certain modal operator (necessary, good/bad; proven, known/unknown, forbidden, believe, etc.). For example:
- "In Russia it is necessary to carry out educational reform" (alethic modality - the possibility, the need for something).
- "Everyone has the right to personal integrity" (deontic modality - moral standards of social behavior).
- "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. The logical links between them are such tricks as:
- Conjunction (and ʌ b are connecting propositions). Conjunct judgments have a bunch of "and":“The exercise of human and civil rights and freedoms must not violate the rights and freedoms of others.”
- Disjunction (a v b – disjunctive judgments). Disjunct judgments are used as constituent elements, and the union “or” is used as a link. For example: "The plaintiff has the right to increase or decrease the size of the claims."
- Implication (a → b – judgment-consequence). If a premise and a consequence are distinguished in the structure of a complex judgment, then it can be argued that such a judgment belongs to the implicative ones. As a link in this form, unions such as "if … then" are used. For example: “If an electric current is passed through the conductor, the conductor will heat up”, “If you want to be happy, be it.”
- Equivalent (a ≡ b – identical judgments). Occurs when a and b are the same (either both are true or both are false): "Man is made to be happy, like a bird is made to fly."
- Negation (¬a, ā – judgment-inversion). Each original statement is associated with a compound statement that denies the original one. It is carried out with the help of a bunch of "not". Accordingly, if the original statement looks like this: "The bull reacts to red light" (a) - then the denial will sound like: "The bull does NOT react to red light" (¬a).
