Note 102 — Chapter II

With perhaps the further implication “although some S’s are P’s”; thus, Few S’s are P’s is given by Kant as an example of the exponible proposition (that is, a proposition which, though not compound in form, can nevertheless be resolved into a conjunction of two or more simpler propositions, which are independent of one another), on the ground that it contains both an affirmation and a negation, though one of them in a concealed way. It should be added that a few has not the same signification as few, but must be regarded as affirmative, and generally, as simply equivalent to some ; e.g., A few S’s are P’s = Some S’s are P’s. Sometimes, however, it means a small number, and in this case the proposition is perhaps best regarded as singular, the subject being collective. Thus, “a few peasants successfully defended the citadel” may be rendered “a small band of peasants successfully defended the citadel,” rather than “some peasants successfully defended the citadel,” since the stress is intended to be laid at least as much on the paucity of their numbers as on the fact that they were peasants. Whilst the proposition interpreted in this way is singular, not general, it is singular indefinite, not singular definite; for what small band is alluded to is left indeterminate.