Encyclopedia > Syllogism

  Article Content

Syllogism

In logic, a syllogism is a valid, three-step argument of the form:

[Statement A].
[Statement B].
Therefore, [Statement C].

Forms of syllogism:

The Aristotle wrote the classic "Barbara" syllogism:

If all humans (B's) are mortal (A),
and all Greeks (C's) are humans (B's),
then all Greeks (C's) are mortal (A).

That is,

Men die.
Socrates is a man.
Socrates will die.

Metaphor, in contrast, resembles a form of syllogism called “Affirming the Consequent”:

Grass dies.
Men die.
Men are grass.

A Barbara syllogism involves Grammar and Logical Types; it has a subject and a predicate. Affirming the Consequent, the basis of metaphor, is grammatically symmetrical: it equates two predicates. This form of syllogism is logically invalid.

this is a stub article

Epagoge are weak syllogisms that rely on inductive reasoning.

See also:



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
UU

... - Wikipedia <<Up     Contents UU Unitarian Universalism the Unseen University University of Utah Union University[?] Th ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 55.2 ms