Subject and Predicate in Logic and Grammar

This essay treats of two conceptions of subject and predicate: one which lies at the core of standard logic and another which is more closely related to surface forms of natural language. It seeks to render these two conceptions, and their divergences, intelligible by relating them both to the 'basic case' in which a subject-term designates a substantial spatial-temporal individual. In the course of developing this central theme Professor Strawson discusses, or touches on, many matters which are, or deserve to be, topics of current debate in the philosophy of language. The treatment is not technical and presupposes no more than an elementary knowledge of logic.