Note 271 — Chapter IX

As another example, we may take the conditional proposition, If the weather is dry, the British root-crops are light. Here it may at first sight appear that the consequent is a proposition of independent import. The proposition, The British root-crops are light, is, however, a judgment incompletely stated. For it contains a time-reference that needs to be made explicit. The conditional really means, If in any year the weather is dry, the British root-crops in that year are light ; and this is equivalent to the categorical, Any year in which the weather is dry is a year in which the British root-crops are light. By looking at the conditional in this way, we see the necessity of referring back to the antecedent in order that the consequent may be fully expressed.