Syllogism

Medium

Syllogism is a form of deductive reasoning where a conclusion is drawn from two given statements (premises).

Why It Matters

Syllogism questions appear in nearly every competitive exam and placement test — banking, SSC, CAT, and campus placements. They test pure logical deduction.

How It Works

A syllogism has two premises and you must determine which conclusions necessarily follow. The four types of statements: All A are B (Universal Affirmative), No A is B (Universal Negative), Some A are B (Particular Affirmative), Some A are not B (Particular Negative). Use Venn diagrams to test each conclusion. A conclusion 'follows' only if it is true in EVERY possible valid Venn diagram arrangement of the premises. If even one valid arrangement makes it false, it does not follow.

Example

Premises: All dogs are animals. All animals are living beings. Conclusion: All dogs are living beings — FOLLOWS (chain of 'All' statements).

Common Mistakes

Students often confuse 'Some A are B' with 'Some A are not B'. Another critical error: concluding 'All B are A' from 'All A are B' — the converse of a universal affirmative is not necessarily true.

Test Your Understanding

Easy Q1

Statements: All books are pages. All pages are words. Conclusions: I. All books are words. II. All words are books. Which conclusion(s) follow?

Easy Q2

Statements: All teachers are educated. All educated people are wise. Conclusions: I. All teachers are wise. II. Some wise people are teachers. Which follows?

Hard Q3

Statements: No cat is a dog. All dogs are birds. Conclusions: I. No cat is a bird. II. Some birds are not cats. Which follows?

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Related Concepts

Coding and Decoding

Coding-decoding problems encode words or letters using a specific rule, and you must identify the rule to decode or encode new inputs.

Number Series

Number series problems require identifying the pattern in a sequence of numbers and finding the next (or missing) term.

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