ENG 1120 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Syllogism, Venn Diagram

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: English
• Course: ENG 1120
• Professor: Jennifer Mac Quarrie

Document Summary

In categorical reasoning the statements, or claims, of interest are categorical statements. Categorical statements make about assertions simple categories, or classes, of things. For example: all cows are herbivores. ", no are gardeners plumbers. ", some business people are cheaters. ", some business people are not moral. ", four standard forms of categorical statements: All s are p. (all cats are carnivores. ) No s are p. (no cats are carnivores. ) Some s are p. (some cats are carnivores. ) Some s are not p. (some cats are not carnivores. ) Examples of universal categorical statements: all students are trouble- makers. ", no a-students are slackers. ". Examples of particular categorical statements: some people are liars. ". Some professors are not mean. ": a valid categorical syllogism is such that if its premises are true, then its conclusion must be true. We can check the validity of categorical syllogisms using the venn diagram method.