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Cognitive abilities

Possibility

Possibility can be applied to syllogistic arguments in the following two cases:

  • If a conclusion can be shown to have no direct relationships between two terms, then 'some' or 'all' is possible.
  • If a conclusion can be shown to have 'some' relationship between two terms, then 'All' is possible.

If both criteria are met, then it follows that either one of the two conclusions follow.

Possiblity cases in syllogism.

Example::

Premises:

Some A is B

Some B is C

Conclusions:

All A is B is possible.

Some A is B is possible.

Distribution of the middle term.

Both possibility conclusions are valid.

Conclusion 1: Some A is B is an immediate inference. Therefore All A is B is possible.

Conclusion 2: No relation between A and C validly follows. Therefore some A is C is a possibility.