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syllogism

UK/ˈsɪlədʒɪz(ə)m/
nounC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,799 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: syllogisms

A syllogism is an argument of two premises and a conclusion. A classic syllogism, valid syllogism, the syllogism fails.

The famous one has all men mortal, Socrates a man, so Socrates mortal. Its lesson is that validity and truth are different things — a syllogism can be perfectly valid and start from false premises, and then the conclusion is worthless. Aristotle set out the forms.

Definitions of syllogism

  1. 1nounsyllogismAn argument of two premises and a conclusion.C2

    “The classic syllogism runs: all men are mortal, Socrates is a man, so Socrates is mortal.”

syllogism is an argument.

Where it comes from

Greek syllogismos means a reckoning together, from syn, together, plus logizesthai, to reason.

  1. Ancient Greek

    συλλογισμός — inference, conclusion

  2. Latin

    syllogismus

  3. Old French

    silogisme — syllogism

  4. English, today

    syllogism

From Old French silogisme (“syllogism”), from Latin syllogismus, from Ancient Greek συλλογισμός (“inference, conclusion”). a doublet of syllogismus.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Logic & Argument

Practise this word

syllogism in the wild

  • Modus tollens is a mixed hypothetical syllogism that takes the form of "If P, then Q.

    Modus tollens

  • In classical logic, a hypothetical syllogism is a valid argument form, a deductive syllogism with a conditional statement for one or both of its premises.

    Hypothetical syllogism

  • Prior Analytics gives an account of deductions in general narrowed down to three basic syllogisms while Posterior Analytics deals with demonstration.

    Prior Analytics

  • Aristotle referred to the enthymeme as "the body of proof", "the strongest of rhetorical proofs...a kind of syllogism".

    Enthymeme

  • A statistical syllogism (or proportional syllogism or direct inference) is a non-deductive syllogism.

    Statistical syllogism

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.