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A syllogism (Ancient Greek: συλλογισμός, syllogismos, 'conclusion, inference') is a kind of logical argument that applies deductive reasoning to arrive at a conclusion based on two propositions that are asserted or assumed to be true.
At present, syllogism is used exclusively as the method used to reach a conclusion closely resembling the "syllogisms" of traditional logic texts: two premises followed by a conclusion each of which is a categorical sentence containing all together three terms, two extremes which appear in the conclusion and one middle term which appears in ...
Depending on the position of the middle term, Aristotle divides the syllogism into three kinds: syllogism in the first, second, and third figure. [14] If the Middle Term is subject of one premise and predicate of the other, the premises are in the First Figure. If the Middle Term is predicate of both premises, the premises are in the Second Figure.
The statistical syllogism was used by Donald Cary Williams and David Stove in their attempt to give a logical solution to the problem of induction. They put forward the argument, which has the form of a statistical syllogism: The great majority of large samples of a population approximately match the population (in proportion)
Modus tollens is a mixed hypothetical syllogism that takes the form of "If P, then Q. Not Q. Therefore, not P." It is an application of the general truth that if a statement is true, then so is its contrapositive. The form shows that inference from P implies Q to the negation of Q implies the negation of P is a valid argument.
Note, however, that this syllogism happens in the reasoning by the speaker "I"; Therefore, in the formal modal logic form, it will be Premise 1: The speaker believes he knows who X is. Premise 2: The speaker believes he does not know who Y is. Conclusion: Therefore, the speaker believes X is not Y.
The first type of enthymeme is a truncated syllogism, or a syllogism with an unstated premise. [6] Here is an example of an enthymeme derived from a syllogism through truncation (shortening) of the syllogism: "Socrates is mortal because he's human." The complete formal syllogism would be the classic: All humans are mortal. (major premise ...
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