In mood notation AAA-1, what do the letters represent?

• A. A stands for universal affirmative; I for particular; 1 indicates Figure I
• B. The letters denote the order of the premises
• C. A stands for universal affirmative; I for particular; 1 indicates Figure I
• D. The digits indicate mood complexity

Answer: (C)

In mood notation, the letters indicate the type of categorical proposition: A = universal affirmative (All S are P), E = universal negative (No S are P), I = particular affirmative (Some S are P), O = particular negative (Some S are not P). The digit after the dash shows the figure, which describes how the terms are arranged in the syllogism. Figure I is the arrangement where the middle term is the subject of the major premise and the predicate of the minor premise.

So AAA-1 means all three propositions are universal affirmatives (A, A, A) and the syllogism uses Figure I. The idea behind the letters is that they encode the statement type, and the 1 encodes the term arrangement. In this mood, you’re looking at universal claims from start to finish, with the standard Figure I structure.