Syllogism

Definition:

S y l l o g i s m i s o r i g i n a l l y a w o r d g i v e n b y t h e G r e e k s . Which means?
‘Inference’  or ‘deduction’- conclusion or inference.
Syllogism is a form of deductive reasoning where you arrive at a specific conclusion by
examining two other premises or ideas.

Definitions of Some Important Terms

The terms defined below are used in the well defined method for solving the problems on
syllogism.
A syllogism is a three-part logical argument, based on deductive reasoning, in which two
premises are combined to arrive at a conclusion. So long as the premises of the syllogism are true
and the syllogism is correctly structured, the conclusion will be true. An example of a syllogism
is "All mammals are animals. All elephants are mammals. Therefore, all elephants are animals."
In a syllogism, the more general premise is called the major premise ("All mammals are
animals"). The more specific premise is called the minor premise ("All elephants are
mammals"). The conclusion joins the logic of the two premises ("Therefore, all elephants are
animals").
Syllogism Examples
What is Truth?
A syllogism can present faulty premises. The conclusion to any faulty premise is automatically
invalid, like this example:

1. All animals have four legs.

2. A snake is an animal.
3. All snakes have four legs.

That makes no sense, since the major premise is wrong. Spiders have eight legs; snakes have
none; birds have two. Anything built from that incorrect, major premise (that all animals have
four legs) is, then, invalid.
A syllogism can also have a faulty conclusion from valid premises. Look at this, and spot the
problem:

Syllogism: Meaning and sample questions

Some syllogisms contain three components:

 Major Premise
 Minor Premise
 Conclusion

Syllogisms consist of three things: major & minor (the premises) and a conclusion, which
follows logically from the major and the minor and is derived from the given statements.

A major is a general principle.

A minor is a specific statement.

Logically, the conclusion follows from applying the major to the minor.

For example, all roses are flowers (major premise). This is a rose (minor premise). Therefore, I
am holding a flower (conclusion).

Example 1

If all humans (B’s) are smart (A), major

And all Indians (c’s) are humans (B’s), (minor)

Then all Indians (c’s) are smart (A) conclusion

Example 2 

Men lie (general principle)

Ram is a man (specific statement)

Ram will lie (Application of major to minor)

Syllogism: Parts of the definition and meaning

Major premise: The first premise in the syllogism

Minor Premise: The second premise in the syllogism

Major term: The category mentioned in both the minor premise and the conclusion. The second
term is the conclusion

Minor term: the category mentioned in both premises but not the conclusion. It is what links
major term and minor term together in the syllogism.

Figure: the figure of a categorical syllogism is the position of its major, minor and middle terms.
There are four figures. The major and minor terms have standard positions in the conclusion
which are the same for all figures.

Each figure is distinguished by the placement of the middle term.

Position of the middle term

Figure Major Premise Minor Premise

First Subject Predicate

Second Predicate Predicate

Third Subject Subject

Fourth Predicate Subject

Fallacy: A mistake in reasoning which makes an argument invalid.

Syllogism: Classification into four figures

 1. First figure: M P; S M; S P.
All men are smart;

Ram is a man;

Ram is smart

2. Second figure P M; S M; SP.

All whales are mammals,

some animals are not mammals;

some animals are not whales

3. Third figure: M P; M S; S P.
No snake lives in Himalaya.

All snakes are reptiles.

Some reptiles don not live in Himalaya

4. Fourth Figure: P M; M S; S P.
Some bows are wood objects;

All wood objects are organic;

some bows are  organic

What changes here is the position of M, the middle term

Syllogisms: Rules to construct syllogism in four figures

1. There are only three terms in a syllogism (by definition)

2. The middle term is not in the conclusion (by definition)

 3. The quantity of a term cannot be greater in the conclusion. Nothing can be added in
order to derive a logical conclusion.

4. The middle term must be universally quantified in at least one premise-you cannot
deduct anything from particular observations

5. At least one premise must be affirmative.

6. If one premise is negative, the conclusion is negative

7. If both premises are affirmative, the conclusion is affirmative

8. At least one premise must be universal

9. If one premise is particular, the conclusion is particular

Syllogism: Logical fallacies that occur include

Fallacy of four terms

Fallacy means a mistake in the reasoning which makes the argument invalid. The fallacy of four
terms is a logical fallacy that occurs when a three-part syllogism has four terms as we have
established that the syllogism will only have three things.

Valid syllogisms always take the form: Major premise (connects the minor premise and the
conclusion)

For example

All fish have gills

Minor Premise That thing is a fish

Conclusion: that thing has gills

The three terms are: that thing, fish and gills

Using four terms invalidates the syllogism;

For example-

Major Premise: All fish have gills

Minor Premise: a toad is a fish

Conclusion: Mogambo has gills

In the above example, it should be clear that there are four terms and therefore the major premise
does not actually connect the minor premise and the conclusion. When premises are not
connected to the conclusion it is called a d non sequitur

Such examples may seem ridiculous but the nature of human language makes it possible to hide
premises and the exact number of terms may not always be clear in casual writing and speech.

Equivocation is a common sub fallacy where two terms use the same word or phrase but with
different definitions giving a false appearance of a valid syllogism:

For example –

Major premise: nothing is better than chicken wings

Minor Premise: A potato is better than nothing

Conclusion A potato is better than chicken wings

Fallacy occurring in categorical syllogism:  These type of propositions can be categorized on

the basis of the following things – their quality, their quantity and their distributive qualities.

The Qualities referred here are of two types- the affirmative and the negative. They refer to
whether the proposition affirms or denies the inclusion of a subject to the class of the predicate.

Whereas a quantity refers to the number of subjects in one class which are included in the other
class. The first quantifier is universal all. This means every subject of one class has membership
in the predicated class.
The other quantifier is called particular. It is an indefinite number which could mean two,
twenty-two or perhaps, all, but always at least one. From quality and quantity there are four types
of categorical propositions designed:

All S is P

No S is P

Some S is P

Some S is not P
Al four types have different distribution properties. Distribution refers to what can be inferred
from the proposition.

Example

All cows are mammals. All cows are indeed mammals but it would be false to say that all
mammals are cows. Here we have to understand that although all x is said to be y but it’s
nowhere mentioned that the entire y is x too.

The second proposition does distribute in a bidirectional way between the subjects and predicate.
From categorical proposition: no deer are mammals, we can infer that no mammals are deer.
Both terms in I proposition are undisturbed.

For example, some Indians are conservatives. Neither term in this proposition can be entirely
distributed to the other term. Form this proposition it is not possible to say that all Indians are
conservatives or that all conservatives are Indians in this third proposition only the predicate
term is distributed.

Now that we can differentiate between the various types of categorical propositions, we can
easily identify the mood of the syllogism. To do so, simply identify the types of propositions in
the first premise, the second premise and the conclusion then state them in that order. In the
categorical syllogism

All A is B
All C is A

Therefore, all C is B

This type of propositions is a universal affirmative. Next to be discussed is the figure of a

categorical syllogism. However, in order to comprehend the figure, one must be able to identify
the three different types of terms: major term, minor term and the middle term.

The term occurring as the predicate of the conclusion is the major term the minor term is the
term that occurs as the subject of the conclusion; C is the minor term. Finally, by process of
elimination, it can be deduced that the middle term is the term which does not occur in the
conclusion but instead once in each premise.

Accordingly, A is the middle term, the figure of a categorical syllogism can be known by
identifying the four possible arrangements of the middle term. The figures are represented
numerically 1-4:

1. The middle term occupies the subject of the first premise and three predicates of the
second premise

2. The middle term occupies the predicate of both the first and second premise

3. The middle term occupies the subject of both the first and second premise

4. The middle term occupies the predicate of the first premise and the subject of the
second premise

Validity

A valid syllogism is one where the conclusion logically follows from its premises. To emphasise
the difference between a valid argument and a sound argument, all premises and conclusions are
randomly generated, such that many will be false.

The validity of an argument does not depend upon whether its premises or conclusions are true.
It merely depends on the formal relations between the premises and conclusion. A valid
syllogism can have false premises or false conclusions.
An argument is sound when it valid and has true premises. Validity is only part of what it takes
to make an argument sound. Very few of the randomly generated syllogisms will be sound but a
fair number will be valid.

Syllogism: Six Rules to test Validity

The last method is to memorise six rules using the information presented thus far.

1. Categorical syllogisms must contain exactly three terms, no more no less (avoid
Fallacy of four terms), beware of synonyms and antonyms because they can create the
illusion of invalidity, but can sometimes be rectified by substituting the
interchangeable terms for one choice

2. If either premise is negative then the conclusion must be negative (Affirmative

conclusion from a negative premise)

3. Both promises cannot be negative

4. Any term distributed in the conclusion must be distributed in either premise

5. The middle term must be distributed once and only once.

6. You cannot draw a particular conclusion with two universal premises.

List of possible syllogisms

The rules are so specific that only 256 infinite number of possible arguments structures qualify
as a categorical syllogism. Not all categorical syllogisms are good arguments; though only 16 of
256 forms are valid. Invalid arguments we recall true premises guarantee a true conclusion.

The Structure of a Syllogism

In a syllogism, the major premise is broad and wide, like saying, "All triangles have three sides
and three interior angles." The major premise is often a conditional statement, beginning with
"If."
 The minor premise scales down that premise to something local, exact, or familiar: "This is a
three-sided polygon." It can also be a conditional statement beginning with "If."

The conclusion connects the universal truth of the major premise to the immediate example of
the minor premise: "Then this three-sided polygon is a triangle." Conclusions often begin with
"Then."

The law of syllogism is also known as reasoning by transitivity. It is similar to the transitive

property of equality, which says if this what sit is like that doohickey, and that doohickey is like
this thingamabob, then this what sit is like this thingamabob:

1. If a = b
2. and if b = c
3. then a = c

Taking the same example from earlier and recasting the premises as conditional statements, we
could write:
1. If all triangles have three sides and three interior angles,
2. And if this is a three-sided polygon,
3. Then this three-sided polygon is a triangle.

The law of syllogism provides for two conditional statements ("If …") followed by a conclusion
("Then …"). Logicians usually assign letters to these parts of the syllogism:

Statements 1 and 2 are called the premises of the argument. If they are true, then statement 3
must be a valid conclusion

Proposition
A proposition is a sentence that makes a statement and gives a relation
b e t w e e n t w o t e r m s . I t c o n s i s t s o f   three parts (a) the subject; (b) the predicate; (c) the
relation between the subject and the predicate. Some examples of propositions are
being given below:
(i)All coasts are beaches.
( i i ) No students are honest.
( i i i ) Some documents are secret
( i v ) Some cloths are not cotton.
Subject and Predicate
A subject is that part of the proposition about which something is being said. A
predicate, on the other hand, is that term of the proposition which is stated about or
related to the subject. Thus, for example, in the four propositions mentioneda b o v e , ‘ c o a s t s ’ ,
‘ s t u d e n t s ’ , ‘ d o c u m e n t s ’ a n d ‘ c l o t h s ’ a r e subjects while ‘beaches’, ‘honest’, ‘secret’
and ‘cotton’ are p r e d i c a t e s .
Categorical Propositions
A categorical proposition makes a direct assertion. It has no conditions attached
with it. For example, “All Sare P”, “No S are P”, “Some S are P” etc are
categorical propositions, but “If S, then P” is not a
c a t e g o r i c a l proposition.
Types of Categorical Propositions
(a)U n i v e r s a l P r o p o s i t i o n :
 Universal propositions either fully include the subject
or fully exclude i t . Examples are, all coasts are beaches. No Students are
honest. Universal propositions are further classified as
(i)Universal Positive Proposition:
 A proposition of the form “All S are P”, for example, “All coasts are beaches”, is called
a universal positive proposition. And it is usually denoted by a letter “A”.
(ii)Universal Negative Proposition:
  A p r o p o s i t i o n of the form “No S are P”, for example, “No students a r e h o n e s t ” , i s
c a l l e d a u n i v e r s a l n e g a t i v e proposition. And it is usually denoted by a
letter “E”. syllogism .
(b) Particular Proposition:
  P a r t i c u l a r p r o p o s i t i o n either only partly include or only partly exclude the subject while
making a statement. Examples are, some documents are secret. Some cloths are not cotton.
Particular propositions are also further classified as
(i)Particular Positive Proposition:
A proposition of the form “Some S are P”, for example, “Some
documents are secret”, is called a particular positive proposition and it is denoted by the letter
“I”
.
(ii)Particular Negative Proposition:
  A p r o p o s i t i o n of the form “Some S are not P” for example, “Some cloths are not cotton”, is
called a particular negative proposition. And is usually denoted by the letter
“O”
.
Important Note
 The definition of the
A, E, I, O
 Propositions are very, very important and the student must have the ability to
immediately recognise these types. With this need in mind w e a r e l i s t i n g t h e s e f o u r
t y p e s o f p r o p o s i t i o n s i n t h e following table:

The Four Types of Propositions 

Positive A Format:
 All S are P
 Example:
 All coasts are beaches.
 I Format:
 Some S are P.
 Example:
 Some documents are secret.
 Negative E Format:
 No S are P
 Example:
 No student are honest.
 O Format:
 Some S are not P.
 Example:
 Some cloths are