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PREDICATION (from Lat. praedicare, to...
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See also:PREDICATION (from See also:Lat. praedicare, to See also:state, assert) , in See also:logic, the See also:term which denotes the joining of a predicate to a subject in a See also:judgment or proposition. The statement " all men are mortal " is to predicate mortality of all men. In other words a judgment is made up of a subject and a predicate joined by a copula. Since the true unit of thought is the judgment, since all concepts or universals exist only in continuous thinking (judging), the theory of predication is a fundamental See also:part of logic. The true relation of subject and predicate has not been deter-See also:mined with unanimity, various logicians emphasizing different aspects of the See also:process (see LOGIC). The logical use of " predicate " is to be distinguished from the grammatical, which includes the verb, whether it be the verb " to be " in its various forms, or another verb. The See also:simple grammatical See also:sentence " he strokes the See also:dog " the first word is the subject, while "strokes the dog " is the predicate, including verb and See also:object. In logic every proposition is reducible to the See also:form " A is B," " B " being the predicate. Thus the logical form of " he strokes the dog " would be " he is stroking the dog " or some other periphrasis which liberates and determines the logical predicate. The true significance of the logical copula is difficult. It cannot be described simply as a third (i.e. See also:separate part) of the judgment, because until two terms are enjoined by it they are not subject and predicate. Much discussion has raged See also:round the question whether the use of the verb " to be " as the copula implies that existence is predicated by the subject. It may be taken as generally agreed that this is not the See also:case (see further LOGIC, and the textbooks). PRE-EXISTENCE, See also:DOCTRINE OF, in See also:theology, the doctrine that Jesus See also:Christ had a human soul which existed before the creation of the See also:world—the first and most perfect of created things —and subsisted, See also:prior to His human See also:birth, in See also:union with the Second See also:Person of the Godhead. It was this human soul which suffered the See also:pain and sorrow described in the Gospels. The See also:chief exposition of this doctrine is that of Dr See also:Watts (See also:Works, v. 274, &c.); it has received little support. In a wider form the doctrine has been applied to men in See also:general—namely, that in the beginning of Creation See also:God created the souls of all men, which were subsequently as a See also:punishment for See also:ill-doing incarnated in See also:physical bodies till discipline should render them See also:fit for spiritual existence. Supporters of this doctrine, the Pre-existants or Pre-existiani, are found as See also:early as the 2nd See also:century, among them being See also:Justin See also:Martyr and See also:Origen (q.v.), and the See also:idea not only belongs to See also:metempsychosis and See also:mysticism generally, but is widely prevalent in See also:Oriental thought. It was condemned by the See also:Council of See also:Constantinople in 540, but has frequently reappeared in See also:modern thought (cf. See also:Wordsworth's Intimations of See also:Immortality) being in fact the natural correlative of a belief in immortality. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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