LOGICAL REASONING

Paper-1, NET/SET/GATE/JRF

By Bhumisuta Banerjee
Scholar, Philosophy Department
Sidho Kanho Birsha University, Purulia
Cont.: +917384739156
Logical Reasoning
Lesson 1 :
Today’s Topic:
• Understanding the arguments: Argument forms
• Structure of Categorical Propositions,
• Mood and Figure,
• Formal fallacies
Understanding the arguments: argument forms, structure of
categorical propositions:
• Categorical propositions have the basic structure or form, that is:
• A quantifier
• A subject i.e. All man is mortal
• A copula or quality Some flowers are not red
• A predicate
In logic we have four categorical propositions:
A ( Universal Affirmative) All mammals are animals.
E ( Universal Negative) No man is four legged.
I ( Particular Affirmative) Some men are teachers.
O (Particular Negative) Some birds are not crows.
These can only be either true or false.
• Arguments are composed of two or more logical statements or categorical propositions.
• These propositions present in an argument are called as premise and conclusion.
• There can be one or more premises in an argument.
Arguments are of two types primarily:
Deductive ( the conclusion necessarily/ certainly follows from the premise or premises)
i.e. All human are mortal (major premise)
Sita is mortal (minor premise)
therefore, Sita is human (conclusion)
And Inductive ( the conclusion follows from the premise or premises with some
probability) i.e. Sita is mortal
Laxmi is mortal
Bhumisuta is mortal
therefore, all human are mortal
• The arguments can either be valid or invalid.
 Mood and Figure:
• Mood: The mood of a categorical syllogism or argument is a series of three letters
corresponding to the type of proposition in major premise, the minor premise
and the conclusion.
i.e. No birds are dogs (E proposition)
No cats are dogs ( E ,,)
therefore, No cats are birds ( E ,,)
Therefore, the mood of this syllogism is ‘EEE’
There are 24 valid moods in categorical syllogism.
Figure: The figure of a categorical syllogism is the number which corresponds to
the positions of the middle terms in both the premises of the syllogism.
The terms of a syllogism are named as:
Major term (P), Minor term (S) and Middle term (M)
The four figures are:
• Figure 1: when the middle term(M) is
on the left of ‘P’ of the major premise • Figure 3: when M is on the left of
and on the right of ‘S’ of the minor the both P and S on both
premise. premises.
M---------P M------P
S----------M M-------S
S----------P S-------P
Figure 2: when M is on the right of both Figure 4: when Mis on the right of P
P and S on both premises
on major premise and on left of S
P------M on minor premise.
S------M P-----M
S------P
M-----S
S-----P
 FORMAL FALLACIES:

• To be a valid syllogism there has to be a few rules followed:

1. Distribution of the terms:
Name subject predicate
A distributed
E distributed distributed
I
O distributed
rules:
1. If the premises are positive then conclusion must be positive.
2. If one of the premise is particular the conclusion must be particular
3. If one of the premise is negative the conclusion must be negative.
4. The middle term must be distributed at least once in the premises.
5. If any of the terms are distributed in the conclusion it must be distributed in the premise too.
6. At least one premise must be affirmative.
7. there must be 3terms only in a syllogism.
8. from two particular premises ,no conclusion can be derived.
9. no conclusion can be drawn from two negative premises.
10. if premises are universal, conclusion must be universal too.

• Fallacies:
1. existential fallacy, if rule 2 is not followed
2. Undistributed middle, if rule 4 is not followed
3. Illicit major and minor, if rule 5 is not followed
4. Exclusive premise, if rule 6 is not followed
5. Affirmative to negative and negative to affirmative, if rule 3 is not followed
6. Fallacy of four terms , if rule7 is not followed