Zu Bolzanos Einwand gegen Kants Bestimmung des analytischen Urteils

According to Kant, an analytic judgment is characterized by the fact that its predicate is already contained in its subject. Bolzano criticizes this definition as being too broad, as it identifies judgments as analytic that clearly are not. As an example, Bolzano presents the following sentence: “The father of Alexander, King of Macedon, was King of Macedon” (=“Sı”). In this sentence, according to Bolzano, the predicate is contained in the subject. However, the sentence is not analytic. The article argues that Bolzano’s criticism is unjustified because it is based on a misunderstanding. Properly understood, Sı does not fall under Kant’s containment criterion.