Note 257 — Chapter VIII

On this view whenever it is desired specially to affirm the existence in the universe of discourse of the subject of a universal proposition, a separate statement to this effect must be made. For example, There are S’s, and all of them are P’s. If, on the other hand, it is ever desired to affirm a particular proposition without implying the existence of the subject, then recourse must be had to the hypothetical or conditional form of statement. Thus, if we do not intend to imply the existence of S, instead of writing Some S’s are P’s, we must write, If there are any S’s, then in some such cases they are also P’s.