ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses Cook Wilson's account of the subject-attribute relation. The subject-attribute relation belongs to reality in general and not to thinking in particular, and the study of it is metaphysical rather than logical. Cook Wilson points out that the theory of syllogism is precisely the exposition of all the possibilities of inferring from two cases of the subject-attribute relation (counting ‘A is not B’ as a case of the relation) to a third case of it. Cook Wilson finds the study of the way in which language represents the subject-attribute relation necessary to the examination of the doctrine of the denotation and connotation of terms. The subject-attribute relation is pervasive, and appears in every domain of reality and so in every possible object of apprehension. With regard to the study of the subject-attribute relation, the general conclusion is that Cook Wilson clearly shews it to be necessary to logic.
