Universal affirmative

The Jolly Contrarian’s Glossary The snippy guide to financial services lingo.™ →Go uptown Index — Click the ᐅ to expand: Glossary Tell me more Sign up for our newsletter — or just get in touch: for ½ a weekly 🍺 you get to consult JC. Ask about it here.

A universal affirmative is a categorical statement taking the form: “Every A is B.” where A and B are predicates. In the language of predicate logic, this can be expressed as: ∀x:A(x)⟹B(x).

Universal affirmatives can only be partially converted. “All of Alma Cogan is dead, but only some of the class of dead people are Alma Cogan.”

As Monty Python had it, given the premise, "all fish live underwater" and "all mackerel are fish", one cannot conclude that "if you buy kippers it will not rain", or that "trout live in trees", much less that "I do not love you any more."

See also

• Correlation and causation
• cognitive dissonance