Syllogism
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A syllogism is a logical argument that necessarily follows if two premises are true.
- "All cats are mammals."
- "Fluffy is a cat."
- Therefore
- Fluffy is a mammal.
As linguistic tools, syllogisms are built from category words such as "all" "none" "some".
- "No conservative voted for Obama"
- "Andy is a conservative"
- therefore,
- "Andy did not vote for Obama".
One has to be careful, however, what categories are applied and assumed.
- "No conservative voted for Obama"
- "John did not vote for Obama"
- Therefore
- "John is a conservative." is an example of an incorrect syllogism, as the exclusive category "no Conservative" does not rule out other people not voting for Obama.
External Links
- Aristotle's Logic - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
