Much of Aristotle’s attention focused on understanding what he called categorical statements. Categorical statements are simply statements that talk about whole categories of objects or people.

Universal statements

These are statements that tell you something about an entire category. Here’s an example of a universal statement:

• All dogs are loyal. This statement relates two categories and tells you that everything in the category of dogs is also in the category of loyal things. You can con- sider this a universal statement because it tells you that loyalty is a uni- versal quality of dogs.

Particular statements

These are statements that tell you about the existence of at least one example within a category. Here’s an example of a particular statement:

• Some bears are dangerous. This statement tells you that at least one item in the category of bears is also in the category of dangerous things. This statement is considered a particular statement because it tells you that at least one particular bear is dangerous.

square of oppositions

	Positive	Negative
Universal	All x are P	No x is P
Particular	Some x are P	Not all x are P