Logical Forms Vocabulary

a form of reasoning with two premises leading to a conclusion

“The classic syllogism: All men are mortal; Socrates is a man; therefore, Socrates is mortal.”

an argument where one premise is implied rather than stated

“He's a politician, so he must be dishonest—an enthymeme assuming all politicians are dishonest.”

the art of investigating truth through discussion and reasoning

“Socratic dialectic involves questioning assumptions to reach deeper truths.”

a conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning

“The detective drew an inference from the scattered clues.”

reasoning from general principles to specific conclusions

“Through deduction, we can determine the culprit from these facts.”

reasoning from specific instances to general principles

“Scientific induction involves generalizing from observed data.”

inference to the best explanation

“Abductive reasoning suggests the most likely cause of these symptoms.”

a thing suggested as a basis for reasoning

“Let us postulate that human behavior is fundamentally rational.”

a statement regarded as self-evidently true

“The axiom that all people are created equal underlies democracy.”

a proposition proved by reasoning from accepted truths

“The Pythagorean theorem follows logically from geometric axioms.”