Recognizing Arguments: Adding Suppressed Premisses

What is a suppressed premiss?

A suppressed premiss is a step in the argument that is not explicitly stated. More specifically, a
suppressed premiss in a deductive argument is a premiss that anyone who thinks the argument is valid
is committed to, yet which is not explicitly stated in the argument.

How to add suppressed premisses:

(1) Identify the conclusion and the premisses that are explicitly stated (by finding inference
indicators like “because” and “therefore”).
(2) Circle all the sentential connectives (‘and’, ‘or’, ‘if… then…’, and ‘… if and only if…’) except
for ‘not’; underline all occurrences of ‘not’ and similar negating words (e.g., ‘it is not the
case’).
(3) Enclose all the simple statements in parentheses.
(4) Assign the same letter to the same simple statement, and different letters to different simple
statements, preserving all sentential connectives [except occasionally for ‘not’: sometimes you
will have to symbolize a statement including ‘not’ as a negation (e.g., not-p), and sometimes
you have to symbolize it as a simple statement (e.g., q)].
(5) Try to match what you have to the closest available logical form or argument type, as below:

Logical Form or Argument Type: If you have: Add:

(* indicates suppressed
(1) Modus Ponens premiss)

if p then q * * if p then q
p p
------------ ------------
q q

if p then q if p then q
p * *p
------------ ------------
q q

(2) Modus Tollens

if p then q if p then q
not-q * * not-q
------------ ------------
not-p not-p

if p then q * * if p then q
not-q not-q
------------ ------------
 not-p not-p
Logical Form or Argument Type: If you have: Add:
(* indicates suppressed
(3) Hypothetical Syllogism premiss)

if p then q if p then q
if q then r * * if q then r
------------ ------------
if p then r if p then r

if p then q * * if p then q
if q then r if q then r
------------ ------------
if p then r if p then r

(4) Disjunctive Syllogism

p or q p or q p or q p or q
not-p not-q * * * not-p * not-q
------------ ------------ -------- --------
q p q p

p or q p or q * * * p or q * p or q
not-p not-q not-p not-q
------------ ------------ -------- --------
q p q p

(5) Dilemma

p or q p or q * * * p or q * p or q
if p then r if p then r if p then r if p then r
if q then s if q then r if q then s if q then r
------------ ------------ ------------
r or s r ------------r or s
r

p or q p or q
if p then r if p then r p or q p or q * if p then r * if p then
if q then s if q then r * * r
------------ ------------ if q then s if q then r
r or s r ------------
------------r or s
r

2
Source:
Austen Clark, Philosophy and Logic: A Self-Paced Course, Fifth Edition, Unit 4, “Analyzing Inferences”.