Note 60 — Chapter III

Propositions which are in appearance purely tautologous have sometimes an epigrammatic force and are used for rhetorical purposes, e.g., A man’s a man (for a’ that). In such cases, however, there is usually an implication which gives the proposition the character of a real proposition; thus, in the above instance the true force of the proposition is that Every man is as such entitled to respect. “In the proposition, Children are children, the subject-term means only the age characteristic of childhood; the predicate-term the other characteristics which are connected with it. By the proposition, War is war, we mean to say that when once a state of warfare has arisen, we need not be surprised that all the consequences usually connected with it appear also. Thus the predicate adds new determinations to the meaning in which the subject was first taken” (Sigwart, Logic, I. p. 86).