Diogenes Laërtius · fl. 3rd century CE
Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.72 — Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
Translation by R. D. Hicks (1925)
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.72
Reported speech · Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
A coupled proposition is one which is put together by certain coupling conjunctions, e.g. “It is day-time and it is light.” A disjunctive proposition is one which is constituted such by the disjunctive conjunction “Either,” as e.g. “Either it is day or it is night.” This conjunction guarantees that one or other of the alternatives is false. A causal proposition is constructed by means of the conjunction “Because,” e.g. “Because it is day, it is light.” For the first clause is, as it were, the cause of the second. A proposition which indicates more or less is one that is formed by the word signifying “rather” and the word “than” in between the clauses, as, for example, “It is rather day-time than night.”
Cite this passage
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.72 (on the Stoics), tr. R. D. Hicks (1925)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/lives-of-the-stoics/7.72
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 notesDefines more compound statements: both-and, either-or, because, and rather-than comparisons, each with a simple example about day and night. Logic terminology with no practical advice.
Older wording
- “coupled proposition”
- — a statement made by joining two claims with and
- “disjunctive proposition”
- — an either-or statement
- “causal proposition”
- — a statement using because
Themes and situations
- Judgements and impressions
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