Deduction

  • Lecture 9.4: Dilemmas

    Many people call any hard practical question a dilemma, but actually a dilemma is a very well-defined type of advanced deductive argument. Here’s what you need to know about them.

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  • Now that we know about enthymemes–arguments with fewer than two lines–let’s learn how to string many syllogisms together into polysyllogisms.

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  • Lecture 9.1: Enthymemes

    Time to leave the shallow end of the pool! With enthymemes–one of the most effective forms of argument, according to Aristotle–we begin our study of advanced deductive arguments.

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  • We conclude our consideration of compound syllogisms by looking at conjunctive syllogisms, in many ways the mirror image of disjunctive syllogisms.

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  • Either you understand disjunctive syllogisms, or you don’t. If you don’t then this lecture is for you.

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  • In this lecture, we learn about the first of our three compound syllogisms–also known sometimes as a “hypothetical” syllogism. The conditional syllogism comes in two varieties, “mixed” and “pure,” and we’ll learn about four different moods for each.

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