Superaltern
Encyclopedia
A superaltern is a universal
proposition
in traditional logic
that is the basis for immediate inference
to a corresponding subaltern.
As an example, the superaltern "All crows are black" corresponds to the subaltern "Some crows are black". However, it is not an accurate logical inference, as "All unicorns are white" would not imply "Some unicorns are white".
Universality (philosophy)
In philosophy, universalism is a doctrine or school claiming universal facts can be discovered and is therefore understood as being in opposition to relativism. In certain religions, universality is the quality ascribed to an entity whose existence is consistent throughout the universe...
proposition
Proposition
In logic and philosophy, the term proposition refers to either the "content" or "meaning" of a meaningful declarative sentence or the pattern of symbols, marks, or sounds that make up a meaningful declarative sentence...
in traditional logic
Term logic
In philosophy, term logic, also known as traditional logic or aristotelian logic, is a loose name for the way of doing logic that began with Aristotle and that was dominant until the advent of modern predicate logic in the late nineteenth century...
that is the basis for immediate inference
Immediate inference
An immediate inference is an inference which can be made from only one statement or proposition. For instance, from the statement "All toads are green." we can make the immediate inference that "No toads are not green." This new statement is known as the contrapositive of the original statement...
to a corresponding subaltern.
As an example, the superaltern "All crows are black" corresponds to the subaltern "Some crows are black". However, it is not an accurate logical inference, as "All unicorns are white" would not imply "Some unicorns are white".