Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Syllogism

Syllogism: noun - aform of reasoning where a conclusion is deduced from two propositions referred toas the premises, which include a common or middle term absent from theconclusion (e.g. All Ds are Es, all Es are Gs, therefore all Ds are Gs); a typeor method of reasoning or something regarded as such, especially one that isspecious or subtle; an artifice, a trick, often jocular or ironic.
In Aristotle's Prior Analytics, he definessyllogism as 'a discourse in which, certain things having been supposed,something different from the things supposed results of necessity because thesethings are so.' e.g:
Major premise: All women are beautiful.Minor premise: All mothers are women.Conclusion: All mothers are beautiful.
Eachof the three distinct terms represents a category. In the above example, 'women', 'beautiful' and 'mothers'; 'beautiful' is the major term, 'mothers' the minor term. Thepremises also have one term in common with each other, which is known as the middle term; in this example, 'women'. Both of the premises are universal, as is the conclusion.
Pic: Honey bee on garden flowers.