Concept in Definition ABC

Etymologically it comes from the Latin syllogismus which, in turn, comes from the Greek syllogismós. According to its semantic sense, it is the union of two cocepts, syn and logos, which could be translated as a union or combination of expressions. A syllogism is a structure consisting of two premises and a conclusion. In it there are three terms (major, minor and middle) that are presented as a deductive reasoning that goes from the general to the particular.

An example of a classical syllogism would be the following:

1) all men are mortal,

2) Aristotle is a man and

3) then Aristotle is mortal (in this example the major term will be mortal, the minor term will be Aristotle and the middle term will be man).

It must be said that not all syllogism by virtue of being one is necessarily true, but that in order to be valid it must respect certain rules, specifically eight.

The syllogisms were created 2500 ago by Aristotle as a part of the logic. The fundamental idea of ​​it consists of extracting or deriving a conclusion from two premises and for this a series of rules of procedure must be followed.

inference.

Rules of inference of the syllogism

- The first rule refers to the number of terms, which must always be three. Any variation to this rule would create a fallacy, that is, a reasoning false with appearance really.

- The second rule indicates that the middle term should not be part of the conclusion.

- The third affirms that the middle term has to be distributed in at least one of the premises.

- According to the fourth rule, the middle term must be found in its universal extension in at least one of the premises.

- The fifth rule states that from two negative premises it is impossible to obtain any kind of conclusion.

- The sixth says that from two affirmative premises it is not possible to draw a negative conclusion.

- According to the seventh rule, if a premise is particular, this implies that the conclusion will also be it and, on the other hand, if a premise is negative, the conclusion will be equally negative.

- The eighth and last rule holds that from two particular premises it is impossible to reach a conclusion.

The syllogism is present in our mental schemes and in mathematics

In everyday life we ​​use, consciously or not, this logical structure. Syllogisms help think with a logical criterion. However, it is in the math where they are most used. In this sense, reasoning and mathematical proofs are based on the rules of syllogisms.

Topics in Syllogism