Existential import refers to whether universal premises guarantee existence.

• A. It refers to whether universal premises guarantee existence
• B. It refers to whether universal premises can be false
• C. It refers to whether the premises are logically consistent
• D. It refers to whether the conclusion is existentially quantified

Answer: (A)

Existential import is about whether universal premises imply that something exists in the subject class. In traditional (Aristotelian) logic, universal propositions carry existential import, so a premise like “All S are M” is understood to assert that there is at least one S. That means universal premises can guarantee existence of the subject. Modern logic, by contrast, treats universal statements as possibly true even if no S exists, so they don’t guarantee existence. This question is testing that exact idea: existential import refers to whether universal premises guarantee existence.