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Single Idea 20787

[catalogued under 19. Language / D. Propositions / 1. Propositions]

Full Idea

A proposition is what can be asserted or denied on its own, for example, 'It is day' or 'Dion is walking'.

Gist of Idea

A proposition is what can be asserted or denied on its own

Source

Chrysippus (fragments/reports [c.240 BCE]), quoted by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 07.65

A Reaction

Note the phrase 'on its own'. If you say 'it is day and Dion is walking', that can't be denied on its own, because first the two halves must each be evaluated, so presumably that doesn't count as a stoic proposition.

Book Reference

'The Stoics Reader', ed/tr. Inwood,B/Gerson,L.P. [Hackett 2008], p.17

Related Idea

Idea 13467 Leibniz was the first modern to focus on sentence-sized units (where empiricists preferred word-size) [Leibniz, by Hart,WD]