Sadr al-Din Dashtaki’s Theory of Predication

Before offering his own theory of the logical predication, Sadr al-Din Dashtaki first criticizes two alternative theories; the first interprets logical predication as the attribution of something (predicate) to something (subject), and the second takes it as expressing the conceptual difference between the subject and the predicate and their essential identity. He then proposes the “conventional difference and existential identity” as the criterion of the logical predication. This theory is constituted of several elements including his peculiar analysis of the derivative words. Dashtaki discovers that both theories of simplicity and complexity of the derivative words are inconsistent with his theory of predication and thus, introduces a new analysis of the derivative words. This analysis pays way to differentiating between attribution of the root to the subject and the identity of subject and predicate. This complex net of principles helps Dashtaki to provide a plausible analysis of special sorts of propositions like existential propositions and hypothetical propositions (la Batti).