Premissza

Premissza is the Hungarian term for the statement that serves as a basis for concluding an argument. In logic and argumentation, a premise is a proposition assumed or asserted as true for the purpose of deriving a conclusion. The conclusion is what follows from the premises through a valid rule of inference. Premises can be explicit, clearly stated in the text, or implicit, implied by context or background knowledge. In formal logic, a set of premises plus an inference rule yields a conclusion; if the premises are true and the inference is valid, the argument is sound; if a valid form is combined with a false premise, it is unsound; if the form is invalid, the conclusion does not necessarily follow.

The term derives from Latin praemissa, meaning "things sent before," via the Italian premessa, and is used in Hungarian and other languages to refer to starting points in reasoning. In theoretical contexts premises are often equated with axioms, hypotheses, or postulates that establish the framework for a theory.

In practice, premises appear in mathematics, philosophy, law, and everyday discourse. Distinctions are made between explicit premises and implicit ones. Examples: deductive: All humans are mortal; Socrates is a human; therefore Socrates is mortal. Inductive: The sun has risen every day this week; therefore it will rise tomorrow. See also: conclusion, inference, syllogism, argumentation theory, axioms.