Rumor is spreading quickly that I am a syllogistic genius. O.K. so let me make this perfectly clear. I AM NOT. I explained to someone yesterday some patterns of ways syllogisms work. She said that she was only getting 25% on syllogisms. Now, she is pulling 75-90% on them. In my opinion, most syllogsims are not that difficult. Some are real head scratchers. Also, there are a handfull of syllogisms on Police Prep that I question as to their correctness. However, if you grasp the pattern, you will pass. I have never gotten a perfect score on syllogisms. I even took another test today and only got 11 of 15 correct.
Here are things in my studies that I have noticed about syllogisms:
The first sentence is the major premise and the second sentence is the minor premise. So here is how it would look:
Major Premise: All dogs are canines.
Minor Premise: All canines eat meat.
Based on these two premises, you must come up with a conclusion. Most syllogisms are not hard. If both premises start with "All", your conclusion will start with "All". If one premise has the word "Not" or "No" in it, your conclusion will have a negative statement in it, like "not" or "no". If one premise has the word "Some" in it, your conclusion will have the word "some" in it. If the word "none" or "no" is in one premise and "some" is in the minor premise, they will almost always both be mentioned as in the phrase "Some ________ are not......"
Also, the noun, word, or phrase that repeats itself in the minor premise, like "canines" in our syllogism above WILL ususally NOT be found in our conclusion. So here is the conclusion to the above syllogism:
All dogs eat meat
Now lets try this one:
Major Premise: All dogs are canines
Minor Premise: No canines eat meat.
The conclusion?
No dogs eat meat.
I know, the above syllogism does not make sense. It does not have to, it only has to follow the rules of sound logic.
Here's another:
Major Premise: All dogs are canines.
Minor Premise: Some canines are meat eaters.
Conclusion: Some meat eaters are dogs.
How about this one:
Major Premise: None of the dogs are canines.
Minor Premise: Some canines are cats.
Conclusion?
Some cats are not dogs
Again, it makes no sense, but it follows the rules of logic. Just look for the pattern. Honestly, there is a simply pattern to all this just like math. It is very similar to positive and negatvie integers in math. I hope this helps.
Wendell
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