Sylogizmy

Sylogizmy (singular: sylogizm) is the Polish term for syllogisms, a classical form of deductive reasoning in which a conclusion follows from two premises. Originating in Aristotle’s Organon, syllogisms were central to ancient and medieval logic and remain important in the study of argument form and inference.

A standard syllogism involves three terms: a major term, a minor term, and a middle term that appears in both premises but not in the conclusion. Categorical syllogisms use statements about categories (e.g., "All humans are mortal; Socrates is human; therefore Socrates is mortal"). Other common types include hypothetical syllogisms (conditional premises) and disjunctive syllogisms (based on "either/or" premises).

Logical validity in sylogizmy depends on form: a valid syllogism guarantees the truth of the conclusion if the premises are true. Soundness requires both validity and true premises. Classical rules govern valid forms, such as distribution of terms and restrictions on negative premises; violations produce formal fallacies like the undistributed middle or illicit process.

While modern predicate logic offers more expressive power and formal rigor, sylogizmy remain pedagogically useful for introducing deduction, for analyzing everyday reasoning, and for certain computational tasks in knowledge representation and automated reasoning.