Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, resembling, or consisting of a syllogism or syllogisms.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to a syllogism; consisting of a syllogism; of the form of reasoning by syllogisms: as, syllogistic arguments or reasoning.
  • noun The art of reasoning by syllogism; formal logic, so far as it deals with syllogism. Compare dialectic, n.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to a syllogism; consisting of a syllogism, or of the form of reasoning by syllogisms.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective of or pertaining to a syllogism

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of or relating to or consisting of syllogism

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Quoth the late great Richard Jeni: It's called syllogistic reasoning, and you get high and proof stuff all day!

    Math, Logic, and Reality Steve Perry 2010

  • The purpose of this letter is to place in clear, stark terms the syllogistic fallacy long misused by some Americans to promote religion in Government.

    (Re) Building the Public Square 2007

  • This process is, therefore, usually illustrated in what is called the syllogistic form, thus:

    Ontario Normal School Manuals: Science of Education Ontario. Ministry of Education

  • If some of them [the practical arts] employ syllogisms as medicine and agriculture do, they are not called syllogistic because their purpose is not [to convince another] nor to employ syllogisms, but to do some activity (1994, p. 29, ll.

    Ibn Bajja Montada, Josep Puig 2007

  • The facilitator of the thinking module does not need to know anything about "divided middles" or "syllogistic reasoning" or "remote associates."

    Eric Maisel, Ph.D.: Adding Thinking to the School Day Ph.D. Eric Maisel 2010

  • The facilitator of the thinking module does not need to know anything about "divided middles" or "syllogistic reasoning" or "remote associates."

    Eric Maisel, Ph.D.: Adding Thinking to the School Day Ph.D. Eric Maisel 2010

  • Loughner's ideas about the world, as revealed through his YouTube channel, are exceedingly nebulous, fixated on currency, grammar, and seemingly dominated by the idea that if you say something multiple times in a vaguely syllogistic way, it will become true.

    Giffords shooter Jared Lee Loughner's YouTube message to the world Alexandra Petri 2011

  • He had made a kind of syllogistic analogy: In Tibet

    Manifesting Michelangelo Joseph Pierce Farrell 2011

  • He had made a kind of syllogistic analogy: In Tibet

    Manifesting Michelangelo Joseph Pierce Farrell 2011

  • Likewise, while it would be odd if modern authors in general wrote things that lent itself easily to this sort of structuring except, perhaps, for occasional exceptions like Joyce, who might well do something like encode a syllogistic structure into a book, it would be less odd for poets who grew up learning syllogisms as a major part of their education.

    Argument in verse 2010

Comments

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  • from wordsmith:

    syllogistic (sil-uh-JIS-tik) adjective

    1. Of or relating to syllogism (a form of deductive reasoning consisting of a major and a minor premise and a conclusion).

    2. Subtle or specious.

    noun

    1. Deductive reasoning.

    2. A subtle or specious piece of reasoning.

    December 20, 2007

  • I'm fine with definition 1, but definition 2 is somewhat suspect.

    December 21, 2007

  • One might even say that definition 2 is specious. Also, since when are subtle and specious interchangeable?

    However, definition 2 is surprisingly persistent, showing up in a variety of dictionaries.

    December 21, 2007

  • A peanut butter sandwich is better than nothing.

    Nothing is better than eternal happiness.

    Therefore a peanut butter sandwich is better than eternal happiness.

    December 21, 2007

  • Actually, before you do a syllogism, you have to convert into first order logic.

    1. Peanut_butter_sandwich > nothing

    2. there does not exist X such that X > eternal_happiness

    From this, you can't reason the way you said.

    December 24, 2007

  • Of course I can. I illustrated Ceria's definition 2.

    December 24, 2007

  • Now we have to define what the meaning of the word "is" is. If I am being illogical, but say that I'm being logical, have I now changed the meaning of the word logical? You are making what I would call a "false syllogism", which is fine, but I'm of the opinion you can't just change the original meaning with the false meaning. I would say,

    1. same as above,

    2. Falsely used to describe specious (often subtly so) reasoning.

    December 25, 2007

  • Time waits for no man.

    No man is an island.

    Therefore time waits for islands.

    October 5, 2008

  • I love it! Is it yours?

    October 5, 2008

  • Yes, but Google shows someone else got there first.

    October 5, 2008

  • I will refer to you anyway. :-)

    October 5, 2008