In five pages this research paper presents an overview of syllogism that includes background, definition, and usage. Eight sources are cited in the bibliography.
Name of Research Paper File: D0_khsyllo.rtf
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be the final word on the use of reason, with only minor revision, for the next two millennia. Later, however the term "syllogism" came to have a narrower meaning.
A syllogism can be defined as reasoning or logic that has the following features: 1. three categorical propositions such that the third (the conclusion) is presented as
following from the first two (the premises), and 2. three terms such that one of them (the middle term) is common to the premises, the second is common to
the conclusion and one of the premises, the third is common to the conclusion and the other premise (Honderich, 1995, p. 862). The first term (the subject )
of the conclusion is called the minor term, the premise contains is the minor premises. It follows then that the second term (the predicate) of the conclusion is called the
major term and the premise contain it the major premise. An example of a syllogism is "All men are mortal; Greeks are men; therefore Greeks are mortal" (Honderich, 1995,p. 862).
These terms have been adapted from the original Greek, i.e. the "major" premise of a syllogism was referred to by Aristotle as the "maxim" (Durant, 1961, p. 46).
Traditionally the premises and conclusions of syllogisms follow one of four moods: all x are y; some x are y; no x are y and some x
are not y (Bucciarelli and Johnson-Laird, 1999). To provide a valid deduction, two of the premises must contain at least one term in common (the middle term, designated B in
the chart below), and two end terms (designated A and C). These three terms in the premises can be in one of the four possible arrangements below: