HSS F236 Symbolic Logic

Assignment
Aristotelian logic or Classical Logic is the traditional account of syllogistic
reasoning. To understand Aristotelian logic, one basic definition is required, that of
a class. A class is a collection of all objects that have some specified characteristic
in common. One class may be related to another class in either of the three ways:
completely contained, mutually exclusive or partially included.
1. Complete Inclusion: All the elements of one class are contained in the other.
All humans are mammals.
2. Partial Inclusion: At least one, but not all elements of one class is included in
the other.
Some men are bald.
3. Mutual Exclusion: The two classes have no common elements.
No bananas are vegetables.
Categorical Propositions
Categorical propositions are propositions with deductive arguments that try to
relate one class to another. These propositions tend to affirm or deny the inclusion
of one class in another. Categorical Propositions are of four kinds:
1. Universal Affirmative Propositions (A): These propositions assert the
complete inclusion of one class (the subject) in another class (the predicate).
All S is P.
All humans are mortals.
2. Universal Negative Propositions (E): These propositions deny any
inclusion (assert complete exclusion) of the subject and predicate class. No S
is P.
No dogs are cats.
3. Particular Affirmative Propositions (I): These propositions assert the
existence of at least one common member among the subject and predicate
class. While this proposition does not verify the complete existence of the
subject class into the predicate, it denies mutual exclusion of the two classes.
Some S is P.
Some politicians are liars.
4. Particular Negative Propositions (O): These propositions assert the
existence of at least one member of the subject class who does not belong to

the predicate class. These propositions deny complete exclusion of the two
classes involved. They also fail to affirm mutual exclusion. Some S is not P.
Some books are not cheap.
Categorical Propositions tend to refer to classes in two different ways. When the
proposition is talking about all members of the class, then it refers to the class in a
distributed way, if the proposition is talking about a few members, it refers to the
class in an undistributed way. The universal propositions (A, I) refer to the subject
class in a distributed way while the Particular propositions (E, O) refer to the subject
in an undistributed way. Also the affirmative propositions (A, I) refer to predicate in
an undistributed way, while the negative ones (E, O) distribute the predicate class
over the subject.
Every class has, with it, a complementary class. This class is the collection of
all the elements in the universe that do not belong to the original class. The
complement of the complement of a class is the original class itself. For example, if
we consider the class of animals, its complement includes everything but animals.
Shoes, buckets, buildings etc. belong to the complementary class, but an elephant
does not.

Categorical Syllogisms
A syllogism is deductive argument in which a conclusion is drawn from two
premises. In a categorical syllogism, the arguments are based on the relations
between the classes. A categorical syllogism is a deductive argument consisting
of three categorical propositions that contain exactly three terms, each of which
occur exactly in two propositions. It is said to be in standard form when all its
premises are in standard form of categorical propositions and are arranged in a
specific order (major premise, minor premise and conclusion).

Major term (P) the term that occurs as the predicate class of conclusion.
Minor term (S) the term that occurs as the subject class of conclusion.
Middle term (M) the term that doesnt occur in the conclusion, but occurs

in the other two propositions of the syllogism.

Major premise the premise that contains the major term.
Minor premise the premise that contains the minor term.

Mood of a syllogism is given by the types of categorical propositions it has.

There are a total of 64 moods. Figure of a syllogism is determined by the position of
the middle term in the major and minor premise. There are 4 different figures. In
total there are 256 forms of syllogism.
Classes and its distribution play an important role in validity. If in a syllogism,
the middle is undistributed in both the premises, an argument is invalid. Similarly, if
a class (subject or predicate) is distributed in the conclusion but not in its premise,
the argument becomes invalid.

Venn Diagram Technique of determining Validity of Syllogisms

In the Venn Diagram technique, three overlapping circles are drawn for
representing the three classes (minor, major and middle represented by S, P and M).
Eight different regions are formed: SPM, SPM, SPM, SPM, SPM, SPM, SPM and
SPM. Here S represents the complement of the class S. Class inclusion and
exclusion as well as its universal and particular nature are represented using a Venn
diagram to visually represent the premises. The conclusion is then checked against
the premises to check the validity of the syllogism. Shading a particular area implies
that the area is to be excluded (the class is empty). Crossing it indicates the
existence of at least one element in the class (the class is not empty).
In this method, first the universal premise if any is taken and the appropriate region
which is not common to the middle and the subject/predicate class is shaded out.
The particular premise(s) is (are) then seen to, where the appropriate is marked
indicating the presence of an element in that region. If there is any area shaded in
the conclusion that is not shaded in the premises, then the syllogism is invalid.
Similarly, if no crosses in the conclusion are included in the premises, the syllogism
is again invalid.
For example, in the following categorical syllogism:

All artists are egotists.

Some artists are paupers.
Therefore some paupers are egotists.

Major term (S) Egotists, Minor term (P) - Paupers and Middle term (M) Artists.

The universal premise (major premise, here) is chosen, the region SPM and SPM
are shaded out (implies SPM and SPM are empty classes. The particular premise is
taken and the appropriate region is marked by a x. Here, the region SPM is marked
by an x (implies SPM is not empty; SPM should also be included, but as indicated
before SPM is an empty class). If the conclusion falls into the area that region as
suggested by the premises, the syllogism is valid. Here, the classes under
observation are SPM and SPM. Since SPM has at least one member (indicated by
x), the syllogism is valid.

The usage of classes in Venn Diagrams helps us deduce the validity of a

categorical syllogism. Classes make it possible to represent a categorical syllogism
pictorially and establish their validity by analyzing the premises and the conclusion.