{"id":625,"date":"2008-03-24T08:51:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-24T12:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/?p=625"},"modified":"2008-03-24T08:51:00","modified_gmt":"2008-03-24T12:51:00","slug":"socrates-is-mortal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/?p=625","title":{"rendered":"Socrates is mortal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Check out this entertaining trope from William Kristol’s op-ed today <\/a>in the New York Times.  He gives three arguments that have the form of the enthymeme–the argument missing a conclusion or premise–but none of the validity necessary to make such arguments effective.   He writes: <\/p>\n

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But orators often <\/strong>ask themselves the convenient questions, not the difficult ones. And Barack Obama is an accomplished orator.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And<\/p>\n

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After all, politicians sometimes <\/strong>indulge in ridiculous and unfair
\ncomparisons to make a point. And Barack Obama is an able politician.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And<\/p>\n

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But ambitious men sometimes <\/strong>do a disservice to the best in their own communities. And Barack Obama is an ambitious man.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As you can see, these have the form of a categorical syllogism–a two-premised deductive argument consisting of categorical statements.  Here’s a more famous example:<\/p>\n