Stoic external negation as existential negation

Abstract

Stoic negation is external, since the negative particle is placed before the statement as a whole. This contrasts with Aristotelian internal negation, which affects only a part of the statement, such as the predicate. Moreover, Stoic external negation also has an existential value. The paper argues that these features of Stoic negation were introduced to expand the possibilities of Peripatetic negation, which the Stoics regarded as lacking universality. These features outline a new conception of logic that allows no exceptions to either the principle of non-contradiction or the principle of bivalence. On this view, propositions and their existential import are understood as inseparably connected to a world causally determined by the λόγος.