Diogenes Laërtius · fl. 3rd century CE
Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.69 — Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
Translation by R. D. Hicks (1925)
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.69
Reported speech · Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
They may, that is, consist either of a single ambiguous proposition, e.g. “If it is day, it is day,” or of more than one proposition, e.g. “If it is day, it is light.” With simple propositions are classed those of negation, denial, privation, affirmation, the definitive and the indefinitive; with those that are not simple the hypothetical, the inferential, the coupled or complex, the disjunctive, the causal, and that which indicates more or less. An example of a negative proposition is “It is not day.” Of the negative proposition one species is the double negative. By double negative is meant the negation of a negation, e.g. “It is not not-day.” Now this presupposes that it is day.
Cite this passage
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.69 (on the Stoics), tr. R. D. Hicks (1925)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/lives-of-the-stoics/7.69
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book VII, tr. R. D. Hicks (Loeb, 1925). Text: Perseus Digital Library (CC BY-SA 4.0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesLists the types of simple and compound statements, such as negation, affirmation, conditionals and either-or, and explains a double negative as the denial of a denial. Pure logic terminology.
Older wording
- “double negative”
- — a denial of a denial, as in it is not not day
- “privation”
- — the lack or absence of something
- “disjunctive”
- — either-or
Themes and situations
- Judgements and impressions
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