Logic -- Juvenile literature; Logic, Symbolic and mathematical
Our 'Conclusion', then, must be got out of the rather meager piece
of information that there is a red counter in the xy'-Square.
Hence our Conclusion is "some x are y' ", i.e. "some new Cakes are
not-nice (Cakes)": or, if you prefer to take y' as your Subject,
"some not-nice Cakes are new (Cakes)"; but the other looks neatest.
We will now write out the whole Syllogism, putting the symbol
&there4[*] for "therefore", and omitting "Cakes", for the sake of
brevity, at the end of each Proposition.
[*][NOTE from Brett: The use of "&there4" is a rather arbitrary
selection. There is no font available in general practice
which renders the "therefore" symbol correction (three dots in a
triangular formation). This can be done, however, in HTML, so if
this document is read in a browser, then the symbol will be properly
recognized. This is a poor man's excuse.]
"Some new Cakes are unwholesome;
No nice Cakes are unwholesome
&there4 Some new Cakes are not-nice."
And you have now worked out, successfully, your first 'SYLLOGISM'.
Permit me to congratulate you, and to express the hope that it is
but the beginning of a long and glorious series of similar victories!
We will work out one other Syllogism--a rather harder one than the
last--and then, I think, you may be safely left to play the Game
by yourself, or (better) with any friend whom you can find, that
is able and willing to take a share in the sport.
Let us see what we can make of the two Premisses--
"All Dragons are uncanny;
All Scotchmen are canny."
Remember, I don't guarantee the Premisses to be FACTS. In the
first place, I never even saw a Dragon: and, in the second place,
it isn't of the slightest consequence to us, as LOGICIANS, whether
our Premisses are true or false: all WE have to do is to make out
whether they LEAD LOGICALLY TO THE CONCLUSION, so that, if THEY
were true, IT would be true also.
You see, we must give up the "Cakes" now, or our cupboard will
be of no use to us. We must take, as our 'Universe', some class
of things which will include Dragons and Scotchmen: shall we say
'Animals'? And, as "canny" is evidently the Attribute belonging
to the 'Middle Terms', we will let m stand for "canny", x for
"Dragons", and y for "Scotchmen". So that our two Premisses are,
in full,
"All Dragon-Animals are uncanny (Animals);
All Scotchman-Animals are canny (Animals)."
And these may be expressed, using letters for words, thus:--
"All x are m';
All y are m."
The first Premiss consists, as you already know, of two parts:--
"Some x are m',"
and "No x are m."
And the second also consists of two parts:--
"Some y are m,"
and "No y are m'."
Let us take the negative portions first.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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