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Information about Illicit Minor

Illicit minor is a logical fallacy committed in a categorical syllogism that is invalid because its minor term is undistributed in the minor premise but distributed in the conclusion.

This fallacy has the following argument form:
All A are B.
All A are C.
Therefore, all C are B.


Example:

All cats are felines.
All cats are mammals.
Therefore, all mammals are felines.


The minor term here is mammal, which is not distributed in the minor premise "All cats are mammals," because this premise is only defining a property of possibly some mammals (i.e., that they're cats.) However, in the conclusion "All mammals are felines," mammal is distributed (it is talking about all mammals being felines). It is shown to be false by any mammal that is not a feline; for example, a dog.

See also

 •  • [ e]
Formal fallacies
Argument from fallacy • Fallacy of modal logic • Masked man fallacy • Appeal to probability • Bare assertion fallacy
Fallacy of propositional logic:Affirming a disjunct • Affirming the consequent • Commutation of Conditionals • False dilemma • Denying the antecedent • Improper Transition
Fallacy of quantificational logic:Existential fallacy • Illicit Conversion • Quantifier shift • Unwarranted contrast
Syllogistic fallacy:Affirmative conclusion from a negative premise • Negative conclusion from an affirmative premise • Exclusive premises • Necessity • Four-term Fallacy • Illicit major • Illicit minor • Undistributed middle


This article was originally based on material from the Free On-line Dictionary of Philosophy, which is licensed under the GFDL.
A fallacy is a component of an argument that is demonstrably flawed in its logic or form, thus rendering the argument invalid in whole. In logical arguments, fallacies are either formal or informal.
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A syllogism (Greek: συλλογισμός — "conclusion," "inference"), (usually the categorical syllogism
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validity as it occurs in logic refers generally to a property of deductive arguments, although many logic texts apply the term to statements as well (a statement is a sentence that “has a truth value,” i.e., that is either true or false).
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The minor term in a categorical syllogism is the term in the minor premise (together with the middle term) and in the conclusion (together with the major term). Along with the major term it is one of the two end terms.
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A categorical term is said to be distributed, if all individual members of that category are accounted for. In a statement like "All A are either B or C", the term A is distributed, because all elements of the set A are pinpointed.
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In a categorical syllogism, the minor premise is the premise whose terms are the syllogism's minor term and middle term. It is also called the subsumption.


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In logic, the argument form or test form of an argument results from replacing the different words, or sentences, that make up the argument with letters, along the lines of algebra; the letters represent logical variables.
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Mammalia
Linnaeus, 1758

Subclasses & Infraclasses
  • Subclass †Allotheria*
  • Subclass Prototheria
  • Subclass Theria

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In a categorical syllogism, the minor premise is the premise whose terms are the syllogism's minor term and middle term. It is also called the subsumption.


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F. s. catus

Trinomial name
Felis silvestris catus
(Linnaeus, 1758)

Synonyms
Felis lybica invalid junior synonym
Felis catus invalid junior synonym[2]

The cat (
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Felidae
G. Fischer de Waldheim, 1817

Subfamilies

Felinae
Pantherinae
†Machairodontinae
Felidae is the biological family of the cats; a member of this family is called a felid.
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C. l. familiaris

Trinomial name
Canis lupus familiaris
(Linnaeus, 1758)

The dog (Canis lupus familiaris) is a domestic subspecies of the wolf, a mammal of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora.
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Illicit major is a logical fallacy committed in a categorical syllogism that is invalid because its major term is undistributed in the major premise but distributed in the conclusion.

Example:
  • All dogs are mammals.
  • No cats are dogs.

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Syllogistic fallacies are logical fallacies that occur in syllogisms. They include:

Any syllogism type (other than polysyllogism and disjunctive):
  • fallacy of four terms
Occurring in categorical syllogisms:

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In philosophy, a formal fallacy or a logical fallacy is a pattern of reasoning which is always wrong. This is due to a flaw in the structure of the argument which renders the argument invalid.
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The argument from fallacy, also known as argumentum ad logicam or fallacy fallacy, is a logical fallacy which assumes that if an argument is fallacious, its conclusion must be false.

It has the general argument form:
If P, then Q.

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In formal logic, a modal logic is any logic for handling modalities: concepts like possibility, existence, and necessity. Logics for handling a number of other ideas, such as eventually, formerly, can, could
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The masked man fallacy is a fallacy of formal logic in which substitution of identical designators in a true statement can lead to a false one. The name comes from the example "I do not know who the masked man is", which can be true even though the masked man is Jones, and I know
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The appeal to probability is a logical fallacy, often used in conjunction with other fallacies. It assumes that because something could happen, it is inevitable that it will happen. This is flawed logic, regardless of the likelihood of the event in question.
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The bare assertion fallacy is fallacy in formal logic where a premise in an argument is assumed to be true merely because it says that it is true.

One form of the fallacy may be summarized as follows:
  • Fact 1: X claims statement A.

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In logic and mathematics, a propositional calculus (or a sentential calculus) is a formal system in which formulas representing propositions can be formed by combining atomic propositions using logical connectives, and a system of formal proof rules
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The logical fallacy of affirming a disjunct also known as the fallacy of the alternative disjunct occurs when a deductive argument takes either of the two following forms:

A or B
A
Therefore, it is not the case that B

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Affirming the consequent is a formal fallacy, committed by reasoning in the form:

If P, then Q.
Q.
Therefore, P.

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false dilemma—also known as false choice, false dichotomy, falsified dilemma, fallacy of the excluded middle, black and white thinking, false correlative, either/or fallacy, and bifurcation
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Denying the antecedent is a logical fallacy, committed by reasoning in the form:

If P, then Q.
Not P.
Therefore, not Q.

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The term quantification has several meanings, general and specific. Primarily it covers all those acts which quantify observations and experiences by converting them into numbers through counting and measuring. It is thus the basis for mathematics and for science.
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The existential fallacy, or existential instantiation, is a logical fallacy committed in a categorical syllogism that is invalid because it has two universal premises and a particular conclusion.
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An illicit conversion is the invalid inversion of a A- or O-type proposition. It can also be defined as an argument which entails the arbitrary assignment of a specific trait of a set to one of its subsets.
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Syllogistic fallacies are logical fallacies that occur in syllogisms. They include:

Any syllogism type (other than polysyllogism and disjunctive):
  • fallacy of four terms
Occurring in categorical syllogisms:

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Affirmative conclusion from a negative premise is a logical fallacy that is committed when a categorical syllogism has a positive conclusion, but one or two negative premises.

For example:
No fish are dogs, and no dogs can fly, therefore all fish can fly.

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