The key difference between syllogism and statement and conclusion is that syllogism is a logical argument, whereas statements and conclusions are components of a syllogism.
In a syllogism, a statement is a sentence that declares something, while a conclusion is the logical result of the relationship between the premises. A syllogism typically has two statements and a conclusion. These two statements are known as the major premise and minor premise. We arrive at the conclusion of the syllogism using these two premises.
CONTENT
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is a Syllogism
3. What is a Statement
4. What is a Conclusion
5. Syllogism vs Statement vs Conclusion in Tabular Form
6. Summary – Syllogism vs Statement vs Conclusion
What is a Syllogism?
Syllogism is a logical argument that is used in deductive reasoning to come to a conclusion based on two premises that are considered true. A syllogism consists of two statements and a conclusion. These two statements and the conclusion are declarative statements.
At the same time, syllogistic statements are logical arguments. For example, consider the below syllogism:
“A equals B; B equals C; Therefore, A equals C.”
In this example, A equals B is the major premise, B equals C is the minor premise, and A equals C is the conclusion.
Furthermore, there are different types of syllogism as a categorical syllogism, conditional syllogism, disjunctive syllogism, and enthymemes syllogism. A categorical syllogism is made up of an argument consisting of three categorical propositions as two premises and a conclusion. Conditional syllogism, on the other hand, gives the pattern of “If A is true, then B is true”. In this type of syllogism, arguments are always valid. Moreover, the disjunctive syllogism is a logical argument that has only two possibilities, while a formal enthymeme is a syllogistic argument that has a statement omitted and is used to prove a conclusion.
What is a Statement?
In syllogism, there are several varieties of statements. And, there are two types of statements as major premise and minor premise. The major premise is a statement of a general or universal nature while the minor premise is a statement that is related to a particular case. It is important to understand the types of statements when dealing with a syllogism. The basic types of statements you can find in a syllogism are Universal Positive Statement, Universal Negative Statement, Particular Positive Statement, and Particular Negative Statement.
- The universal positive statement indicates positive points, and these statements start with the words “all, each, and every.”
Ex: All girls have long hair.
- Universal negative statements indicate negative meanings and give negative impressions.
Ex: None of the boys have long hair.
- Although particular positive statements reveal positive information, they do not talk about the whole class of the items.
Ex: Some of the men are actors.
- Particular negative statements also talk about only a part of an item, but they give a negative impression.
Ex: Some women are not doctors.
What is a Conclusion?
In syllogism, there are different types of questions. Some consist of two statements and two conclusions whereas some consist of three/four statements with three/four conclusions. In order to solve questions, the candidate should check the conclusions first and solve them.
There are different types of conclusions like negative conclusion, positive conclusion, and universal conclusion. Some tricks and rules to understand syllogism are as follows:
- with two particular statements, no universal conclusion is possible,
- with two positive statements, no negative conclusion is possible,
- with two negative statements, no positive conclusion is possible
- with two particular statements, no conclusion is possible, except when an ‘I’ type of statement is given, and then by reversing it, an ‘I’ type of conclusion is possible.
The best way to understand syllogisms is by remembering the syllogism rules.
What is the Difference Between Syllogism and Statement and Conclusion?
The key difference between syllogism and statement and conclusion is that syllogism is a logical argument whereas statements and conclusions are components of a syllogism. Moreover, syllogism comprises three sections as major premise, minor premise, and conclusion. But statements and conclusions do not have sub-sections. Similarly, syllogism, statement, and conclusion are logical statements.
Below is a summary of the difference between syllogism and statement and conclusion in tabular form for side by side comparison.
Summary – Syllogism vs Statement vs Conclusion
The key difference between syllogism and statement and conclusion is that syllogism is a logical argument, whereas statements and conclusions are components of a syllogism.
Reference:
1. Betts, Jennifer. “Deductive Reasoning Examples.” Examples.
2. “Syllogisms : Concepts and Theory.” Hitbullseye.
Image Courtesy:
1. “Truyện vui logic” By Nguyen Hung Vu (CC BY 2.0) via Flickr