Quasi-syllogism
Quasi-syllogism is a term that is sometimes used to describe what might be otherwise called a categorical syllogism but where one of the premises is singular, and thus not a categorical statement. For example: - All men are mortal
- Socrates is a man
- Socrates is mortal
In the above argument, while premise 1 is a categorical, premise 2 is a singular statement referring to one individual. While this is a valid logical form, it is not strictly a categorical syllogism. Of course, it has been suggested that you can translate any singular statement into a categorical. For example: - Socrates is a man
- All members of a class of which the only member is "Socrates" are men
The above two premises may be considered identical, but the first is a singular and the second is a categorical.
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