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Single Idea 20778

[filed under theme 4. Formal Logic / A. Syllogistic Logic / 2. Syllogistic Logic ]

Full Idea

Stoics say the study of syllogisms is extremely useful; for it indicates what is demonstrative, and this makes a big contribution toward correcting one's opinions; and orderliness and good memory indicate attentive comprehension.

Gist of Idea

Stoics like syllogisms, for showing what is demonstrative, which corrects opinions

Source

report of Stoic school (fragments/reports [c.200 BCE]) by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 07.45

Book Ref

'The Stoics Reader', ed/tr. Inwood,B/Gerson,L.P. [Hackett 2008], p.11


A Reaction

The stoics also developed propositional logic. The main point is that they liked formal logic, which is not true of all the ancient schools.


The 14 ideas with the same theme [general ideas about formal arguments in syllogism form]:

Aristotle's said some Fs are G or some Fs are not G, forgetting that there might be no Fs [Bostock on Aristotle]
Stoics like syllogisms, for showing what is demonstrative, which corrects opinions [Stoic school, by Diog. Laertius]
Syllogisms are verbal fencing, not discovery [Locke]
Many people can reason well, yet can't make a syllogism [Locke]
Frege thought traditional categories had psychological and linguistic impurities [Frege, by Rumfitt]
The Darapti syllogism is fallacious: All M is S, all M is P, so some S is P' - but if there is no M? [Russell]
The mortality of Socrates is more certain from induction than it is from deduction [Russell]
The universal syllogism is now expressed as the transitivity of subclasses [Putnam]
The Square of Opposition has two contradictory pairs, one contrary pair, and one sub-contrary pair [Harré]
Venn Diagrams map three predicates into eight compartments, then look for the conclusion [Bostock]
An 'enthymeme' is an argument with an indispensable unstated assumption [Yablo]
'No councillors are bankers' and 'All bankers are athletes' implies 'Some athletes are not councillors' [Devlin]
'Equivocation' is when terms do not mean the same thing in premises and conclusion [Beall/Restall]
Syllogistic can't handle sentences with singular terms, or relational terms, or compound sentences [Engelbretsen/Sayward]