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Syllogisms in English Literature

Decent Essays

Part 1 - Syllogism: All the mean people are creatures that are not pleasant Only creatures that are not pleasant are creatures that will be disliked A syllogism is an argument in which one issue is inferred from two or more premises. For instance, in the above examples we see: There are mean people All mean people are creatures All mean people are creatures who are not pleasant Therefore, all mean people are unpleasant Creatures may be pleasant or unpleasant Creatures may be liked or disliked Unpleasant creatures will be disliked Therefore, mean people will be disliked The syllogies are based on a set of facts from the author. The use of all, though, implies an imperative all mean people will be disliked, which may or may not be true because some people may actually like mean people or mean creatures. Additionally, meanness is perhaps a gray area it may be expressed societally or culturally. Some societies, for instance, have little respect for wildlife and see them as encroaching upon their land and farm; others see the protection of wildlife part of the human ethic, and therefore people who are mean to animals are mean a value judgment. We can infer, though, some absolutes based on the syllogies: in the world there are creatures that are nice and creatures that are mean, and creatures that are pleasant or unpleasant. We do not have an absolute definition of those creatures, but the syllogies imply that mean creatures are unpleasant and therefore people do not

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