Prémisses

Prémisses are foundational statements or assumptions upon which an argument, theory, or conclusion is built. In logic and philosophy, a valid argument is one where the conclusion necessarily follows from its premises. If the premises are true and the argument is logically sound, then the conclusion must also be true.

In everyday language, premises are the basic ideas or beliefs that someone accepts as true before they start to reason about something. For example, in the argument "All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore, Socrates is mortal," the first two statements are the premises. The truth of these premises leads directly to the conclusion.

The concept of premises is crucial in deductive reasoning, where one moves from general principles to specific conclusions. However, premises can also be challenged. If a premise is found to be false, the argument built upon it may be weakened or invalidated, even if the reasoning process itself is sound. Identifying and evaluating the premises of any given statement or argument is therefore a critical step in understanding and assessing its validity and truthfulness. Different fields, such as mathematics, science, and law, rely heavily on clearly defined and accepted premises to establish their respective bodies of knowledge.