An introductory text-book of logic - Mellone, Sydney - Rare Books at ...

AND THE ARISTOTELIAN SYLLOGISM. 159
(a) The sun is an object of Persian worship ;
The sun is a thing insensible ;
Therefore something insensible is an object of Persian
worship.
(b) Kings are to be honoured by command of the Divine
Law ;
Louis XIV. is a king ;
Therefore Louis XIV. is to be honoured by com
mand of the Divine Law. 1
We add a few more examples illustrating this logical
transformation of the ordinary expressions of reasoning.
" He must be a Buddhist, for all Buddhists hold these
opinions."
"
Here the unexpressed minor premise evidently is, he
"
holds these :
opinions
All Buddhists are persons holding these opinions ;
He is a person holding these opinions ;
Therefore he is a Buddhist.
This is the mood AAA in fig. ii., and is formally invalid,
as it involves an undistributed middle. This is an
example of a fallacy which frequently arises through
arguing, in the second figure, from resemblances. Any
one may hold opinions resembling some Buddhist
doctrines without being a Buddhist. Inductively such
arguments are of great importance, and the conditions
under which we may rely on them will be discussed in
the sequel ; but they are formally fallacious. If the
original argument
had been as follows :
" He
must be
1
Example (a) might also be taken as an instance of what Jevons
calls "immediate inference by complex conception" (see above,
ch. III. 13) followed by Barbara :
"
The sun is a thing insensible,
therefore worshippers of the sun are worshippers of a thing in
sensible ; the Persians are worshippers of the sun, therefore the
Persians are worshippers of a thing insensible." As regards (/>),
the valid conclusion is that the French subjects of Louis XIV. were
bound to honour him as an official, not necessarily as a man.