Which standard proposition distributes both terms?

• A. A
• B. E
• C. I
• D. O

Answer: (B)

Distribution is about whether a proposition makes a claim about all members of a term’s class. A term is distributed if the statement says something about every member of that class.

In all, a universal affirmative says all of the subject are within the predicate, so the subject term is distributed but the predicate term is not. A universal negative, on the other hand, states that no member of the subject class is a member of the predicate class. That means the claim covers all of the subject term and also all of the predicate term, so both terms are distributed. The particular forms, some and some not, make existential claims and do not distribute either term.

So the statement that distributes both terms is the universal negative form: No S are P. It asserts something about every S (none are P) and about every P (none are S), hence both terms are distributed.