Enthymemes

[MonaLisa]

I have sped through Traditional Logic 2, but am having much trouble working enthymemes. I easily spot which order it is, but can't figure the placement of the subject and predicate of the missing premise. Any suggestions?

[martin]

Monalisa,

You said, "I have sped through Traditional Logic 2, but am having much trouble working enthymemes. I easily spot which order it is, but can't figure the placement of the subject and predicate of the missing premise. Any suggestions?"

You must first determine which premise is missing: the major or minor. You must already know this since you said you knew which order the enthymeme was in, and that requires knowing which is missing: the major or minor. Once you know which premis is missing, you simply make sure that the placement of the subject and predicate matches one of the 19 valid argument forms. In other words, if putting one thing in the subject of the missing premise, and another in the predicate, yields one of the valid forms, then you got it right.

Does this help?

Martin Cothran