Logical thinking is most important in our life. It helps to identify the causes of failure and develop a suitable plan of action. Logic helps making decisions based on facts rather than emotions. Logical reasoning improves a person’s position in society. Logic influences all aspects of life.
Syllogism is an important part of Aristotle’s logic. It facilitates inference in which conclusion follows from two premises. We consider two kinds of syllogism: conditional and unconditional. Further, under conditional, there are two divisions: mixed and pure. Syllogism is a form of arguing in which two statements are used to prove that a third statement is true, for example, ‘All humans need to sleep; I am a human, therefore I need to sleep’. A syllogism applies logical reasoning to arrive at a conclusion based on two proportions that are established or assumed to be true. Aristotle defined the syllogism when two specific things have been supposed, something different, a third thing from the two supposed things results as logical reasoning.
The use of syllogisms as a tool for understanding can be dated back to the logical reasoning proposed by Aristotle. The use of syllogism in real life lies in its ability to facilitate logical thinking to draw sound conclusions from given statements.
For example: i) All mammals are animals. All elephants are mammals. Therefore, all elephants are animals. Another example: ii) No doctors are children. Some immature people are doctors. Therefore, some immature people are not children. Look at this: iii) Some nice people are teachers. Some people with short hair are nice. Therefore, some teachers have short hair.
In everyday life, syllogisms can be applied to various situations where critical thinking and problem-solving are required. Syllogisms can be used to evaluate the validity of arguments: by breaking down an argument into its premises and conclusion, one can assess whether the inference logically follows from the given information.
It helps in making informed decisions: Syllogistic reasoning can help individuals to consider multiple factors, identify causal relationships, and arrive at well-reasoned conclusions when making decisions. For example: All love is wonder. She is wonderful. Therefore, she is lovely.
Syllogism Identifies to resolve logical myths. By recognizing the structure of a syllogism can aid in the identification of logical fallacies, such as the fallacy of ambiguity or the fallacy of affirming the sequent, which can commonly occur in everyday discourse. For example: All books from that store are new. These books are from that store. Therefore, these books are new.
Syllogism improves critical thinking and problem-solving: The systematic approach of syllogistic reasoning can enhance an individual’s ability to analyse information, identify assumptions, and draw logical inferences, which are essential skills in various professional and personal contexts.
Overall, the use of syllogism in real life lies in its ability to promote logical and analytical thinking, enhance decision-making, and foster effective communication and problem-solving skills, which are valuable in both professional and personal domains. Example: Most people get nervous when they tell lies. You appear nervous. You must be lying about something.
Various types of Syllogism based logical reasoning is part of competitive exams. Questions are being asked in different government and competitive examinations, which makes them the most important sections under the verbal reasoning section. It helps the examiners to check logical reason capacity of the examinees. Syllogism consists of some statements, and candidates need to derive conclusions from the given statements. The statements and conclusions may seem to be illogical, but while solving questions related to syllogism in reasoning, candidates must assume the given statements to be 100% true. In many ways, syllogistic fallacies are the ‘classic’ form of fallacy. Syllogism reasoning questions check the basic aptitude and ability of a candidate to derive reasonings from given statements using step-by-step methods of solving problems.