Judgment is one of the basic forms of human thinking , which is an integral element of all knowledge. Especially if this process is associated with reflection, conclusions and evidence building. In logic, judgment is also defined by the word utterance.
Judgment as a Concept
Having only one concepts and ideas without the possibility of their connection or connection, could people come to know something? The answer is unequivocal: no. Cognition is possible only in those cases when it relates to truth or falsehood. And the question of truth and lies arises only if there is any connection between the concepts. The union between them is established only at the time of judging something. For example, pronouncing the word “cat”, which does not carry either truth or falsity, we mean only the concept. The proposition “a cat has four legs” is already a statement that is either true or not and has an affirmative or negative assessment. For example: “All trees are green”; "Some birds do not fly"; “Not a single dolphin is a fish”; "Some plants are not edible."
Constructing a judgment creates the foundation that is considered valid. This allows you to move in thought to the truth. Judgment allows you to reflect the connection between phenomena and objects or between properties and signs. For example: “Water expands during freezing” - the phrase expresses the relationship between the volumes of the substance and temperature. This allows you to establish a relationship between different concepts. Judgments contain the affirmation or denial of the connection between events, objects, phenomena. For example, when they say: “The car goes along the house”, they mean a certain spatial connection between two objects (a car and a house).
Judgments - this is a mental form that has a statement or denial of the existence of objects (concepts), as well as the relationship between objects or concepts, objects and their signs.
Linguistic form of judgment
Just as concepts do not exist outside words or phrases, so utterances are impossible outside sentences. However, not every sentence is a judgment. Any statement in a linguistic form is expressed in a narrative form that carries a message about something. Proposals that do not have denial or affirmation (interrogative and incentive), that is, those that cannot be described as true or false, are not judgments. Statements describing future possible events are also impossible to evaluate as carrying lies or truth.
Still, there are sentences that look like a question or exclamation in form. But within the meaning they affirm or deny. They are called rhetorical. For example: “What Russian doesn’t like to drive fast?” - This is a rhetorical interrogative sentence that is based on a specific opinion. The judgment in this case contains the statement that every Russian loves a fast ride. The same goes for exclamatory sentences: “Try to find snow in June!” In this case, the idea of the impossibility of the proposed action is affirmed. This design is also a saying. Like propositions, judgments can be simple and complex.
Structure of judgment
A simple statement does not have a definite part that can be distinguished. Its components are even simpler structural components that call concepts. From the point of view of the semantic unit, a simple proposition is an independent link with the value of truth.
The statement connecting the subject and its attribute contains the first and second concepts. Suggestions of this type include:
Types of Judgment
Simple statements are classified by:
- quality;
- quantity (according to the volume of the subject);
- predicate content
- modalities.
Quality judgments
One of the main, important logical characteristics is quality. The essence in this case is manifested in the ability to reveal the absence or presence of certain relations between concepts.
Depending on the quality of such a bundle, two forms of judgment are distinguished:
- Affirmative. It reveals the presence of a certain connection between the subject and the predicate. The general formula for this statement is: “S is P”. Example: "The sun is a star."
- Negative. Accordingly, it reflects the absence of any connection between the concepts (S and P). The negative judgment formula is “S is not P”. For example: “Birds are not mammals.”
This separation is very arbitrary, since any statement in a hidden form contains a negation. And vice versa. For example, the phrase “this sea” means that the subject is not a river, not a lake, and so on. And if "this is not the sea", then, accordingly, something else, perhaps the ocean or the bay. That is why one statement can be expressed in the form of another, and double negation corresponds to the statement.
Varieties of affirmative judgments
If the “not” particle does not stand in front of the bundle, but is an integral part of the predicate, such statements are called affirmative: “The decision made was wrong.” There are two varieties:
- positive property when “S is P”: “Domestic dog”.
- negative character when "S is not-P": "Soup stale."
Varieties of Negative Judgments
Similarly, among negative statements distinguish:
- with a positive predicate, the formula “S is not P”: “Olya did not eat an apple”;
- with a negative predicate, the formula "S is not non-P": "Olya cannot but go."
The importance of negative judgments lies in their participation in the attainment of truth. They reflect the objective absence of something from something. No wonder they say that a negative result is also a result. Establishing what the subject is not and what qualities it does not possess is also important in the process of reflection.
Judgments by quantity
Another characteristic based on knowledge of the subject's logical volume is quantity. The following types are distinguished:
- Single containing information about one subject. Formula: "S is (not is) P".
- Private - these are those that have a judgment on the part of objects of a particular class. Depending on the certainty of this part, they distinguish: certain ("Only some S are (not) P") and indefinite ("Some S are (not) P").
- The general ones contain a statement or a denial about each subject of the class in question (“All S is P” or “Not a single S is P”).
United Judgments
Many statements have both qualitative and quantitative characteristics. For them, a unified classification is applied. This gives four kinds of judgments:
- General affirmative: "All S is P".
- All-negative: “Not one S is P”.
- Private affirmative: "Some S is P".
- Partially Negative: “Some S is not P”.
A variety of judgments on the content of the predicate
Depending on the semantic load of the predicate, the following statements are distinguished:
- properties, or attributive;
- relationships, or relational;
- existences, or existential.
Simple judgments, revealing a direct connection between objects of thought, regardless of its content, are called attributive or categorical. For example: "No one has the right to take the life of another." The logical scheme of the attributive statement: “S is (or is not) P” (subject, connective, predicate, respectively).
Relational judgments are statements in which a predicate expresses the presence or absence of a connection (relationship) between two or more objects in different categories (time, place, causal dependence). For example: "Petya arrived before Vasya."
If a predicate indicates the absence or presence of a connection between objects or the object of thought itself, such a statement is called existential. Here the predicate is expressed by the words: “there is / not”, “was / was not”, “exists / does not exist” and so on. Example: “There is no smoke without fire.”
Modality of judgment
In addition to the general content, the utterance can carry an additional semantic load. With the help of the words “possible”, “insignificantly”, “important” and others, as well as corresponding negatives “not allowed”, “impossible” and others, the modality of judgment is expressed.
There are such types of modality:
- Athletic (true) modality. Expresses the connection between objects of thought. Modal words: “possible”, “randomly”, “necessary”, as well as their synonyms.
- Deontic (normative) modality. Refers to standards of conduct. Words: "prohibited", "required", "allowed", "allowed" and so on.
- The epistemic (cognitive) modality characterizes the degree of certainty (“proven”, “disproved”, “doubtful” and their analogues).
- Axiological (value) modality. Reflects a person’s attitude to any values. Modal words: "bad", "indifferent", "unimportant", "good."
An expression of the attitude to the content of a statement through the statement of modality, usually associated with an emotional state, is defined as a value judgment. For example: "Unfortunately, it is raining." In this case, the subjective attitude of the speaker to the fact that it is raining is reflected.
Compound sentence structure
Complex judgments consist of simple, interconnected logical alliances. Such ligaments are used as a link capable of combining sentences with each other. In addition to the logical binding, which in the Russian language takes the form of unions, quantifiers are also used. They come in two forms:
- The quantifier of community is the words “everyone,” “everyone,” “none,” “everyone,” and so on. The proposals in this case are as follows: "All objects have a certain property."
- The quantifier of existence is the words “some,” “many,” “a little,” “most,” and so on. The formula of the complex sentence in this case is: "There are some objects that have certain properties."
An example of a complex judgment: "In the early morning, a rooster crowed, he woke me up, so I did not get enough sleep."
Ability to judge
The ability to build statements comes to a person with age, gradually. By about three years old, the child can already pronounce simple sentences that state something. Understanding logical connections, grammatical unions, is a necessary and sufficient condition for a correct judgment on a specific occasion. In the process of development, a person learns to generalize information. This allows him, based on simple judgments, to build complex ones.