Logical Reasoning Made Simple1
Logical Reasoning Made Simple1
Logical Reasoning Made Simple1
SYLLOGISMS
GATE ACADEMY
THALAYOLAPARAMBU
INTRODUCTION
LOGIC IS A MATTER OF PROFOUND HUMAN
IMPORTANCE, PRECISELY BECAUSE IT IS
EMPIRICALLY FOUNDED AND EXPERIMENTALLY
APPLIED - John Dewey
In most of the competitive examinations like POs,
Management Trainees and Administrative Officers,
a test in logical reasoning has become an integral
part of the written test.
A majority of the candidates appearing for such
exams are bewildered to see the problems of
logical reasoning.
Because they appear to them not only silly but
totally alien to this world also.
This is more common in case of candidates who
never had an opportunity to study logic at any
stage in their academic career.
Contd.
The questions based on logical reasoning have
a definite pattern.
You can solve all of them accurately if you have
identified each type and mastered the technique
to solve them.
You need to develop correct interpretation of
questions and the art of reasoning to solve all
types.
You need to know English language reasonably
well for the correct interpretation of key words
in the questions.
Understanding the literal meaning and the
contextual meaning is very important.
The examiners want to test your ability to draw
correct inferences and conclusions by making
you solve these questions.
DEFINITION
Logic is defined as the science of valid reasoning.
It is a science which deals with the canons and
criteria of validity of inferences and
demonstrations.
Reasoning is a special kind of directed, problem
solving type of thinking.
The questions are solved by relating this together.
Any and every kind of thinking is not reasoning.
The word logic comes from the Greek root Logus
which means expression of thought in language.
So, the logic is the science of thoughts expressed
in language.
Perception, conception and judgment are the three
stages of general reasoning.
2. Probabilistic reasoning
3. Strict logical reasoning
4. Contextual Reasoning
SYLLOGISMS
SYLLOGISM OR THE MEDIATE ARGUMENT IS A
DEDUCTIVE ARGUMENT CONTAINING TWO PREMISES
ON THE BASIS OF WHICH THE INFERENCE/CONCLUSION
IS TO BE DRAWN.
The meaning of the word SYLLOGISM is to reason.
SYLLOGISMS..
The types of statements that occur in any particular
syllogism specify its mood
Eg. Man is mortal. Man is subject & mortal is predicate which are
joined by is, a copula.
Eg. Let him attain glory. She looks cheerful. lacks copula and hence,
not propositions.
In propositions relationship of predicate with subject is affirmed or
denied.
Concepts
Terms
Universal terms
Particular terms
Terms which are not universal are all particular terms. e.g. some men.
99.5% women, one lakh farmers, numerous elephants, all but one
teachers, generally every shopkeeper, a few tables, many chairs
all the above are particular terms.
A simple way to recognize a universal term is to apply the test whether
the term denotes all of the items, each and everyone of its class
without exception.
Even if this smallest fraction of that class - men, farmers, elephants,
etc., is missing, the term is rendered a particular term.
The Syllogism
The term syllogism comes from the Greek language and means to say together,
hence giving the sense of putting two thoughts or two proposition together in order to
draw a logical conclusion from them. Here is a valid syllogism :1. All imported cars are small.
2. All sports cars are imported cars.
3. All sports cars are small.
The following however is an invalid syllogism:
1. All artists are sensitive people.
2. All artists are poor.
3. All sensitive people are poor.
From the above examples of syllogism,-you can further see that every valid syllogism
has a key term that appears in both premises and links these together.
This connecting term is normally called the middle term of the syllogism. In the
first example of valid syllogism, the middle term imported cars provides
connecting link between sports cars and small.
The second example has a middle term artist which occurs in each premise.
However the argument fails to be valid because the premise while indicating classes
(artists fall into the class of sensitive people and poor people) - does not inform us of
any relationship between these classes.
The rule of syllogism is that whatever is true of a class of things must be true of an,
sub-division of that class. For example, Anything true of all horses must be true of
stallions. If something, is true of all Asians, it must be true of Indians, Pakistanis,
Chinese, Sri Lankans etc. Likewise, if you den something of a class, we must also
deny it of any of its constituents or sub-divisions. If we say that no Asia deals with
Australians, it will follow that no Indian deals with Australians.
Structure of a syllogism
It is interesting to study the structure of a syllogism. Let us take an example
Man is mortal.
1
2
Ganesh is a man.
3
Ganesh is mortal.
1
3
2
As shown above, there are numerically six terms in the above syllogism, but
actually there are three terms, each occurring twice.
As in a syllogism, subject of the conclusion must occur in one of the first two
premises. The predicate must also occur in one of the premises and the
middle term, i.e. the third term must appear in both the premises as shown
below
1. All men are mortal
(middle term) (major term)
2. Ganesh is a man
(minor term) (middle term)
3. Ganesh is mortal
(minor term) (major term)
As shown above, the middle term does not occur in the conclusion, while it is
a term linking both the premises.
Venn Diagrams
Eg.
4 2
3
9
1
6
10 8
Illustration - 2
Eg.
8
1
3
4
10
2
9
Symbols
Implies
Iff If and only if
= Element
A C B if A A
A B
Illustration - 3
In a class containing 150 students, 85 students passed in
Maths, 95 passed in English, 120 passed in Hindi and 65
passed in Maths and English. 60 students passed in Hindi
and Maths, 70 passed in Hindi and English and 50 passed
in all these subjects.
i) How many students have passed for only Hindi?
(a) 10 (b) 20 (c) 30 (d) 40 (e) 50
ii) How many students have passed for only Maths?
(a) 20 (b) 10 (c) 18 (d) 15 (e) 30
iii) How many students have passed for English and Hindi
and failed for Maths?
(a) 20 (b) 30 (c) 10 (d) 25 (e) 40
iv) iii) How many students have passed for English and
Maths and failed for Hindi?
(a) 45 (b) 35 (c) 25 (d) 15 (e) 30
Ans. Qn.(i) d 40
Qn.(ii) b 10
Qn.(iii) a 20
Qn.(iv) d 15
(a) D,B,G (b) A,E,G (c) ABCDEFG (d) BCDF (e) BCD
Ans. (b) A,E,G
Ans. (b) 70
Answer key
Qn.26. Ans.(3)
Explanation: 10 + 12 = 22
Qn. 27.Ans.(1);
Explanation: 18+6+8=32
Qn. 28. Ans.(4);
Explanation: Encroaching all 3; 18 only
Qn.29. Ans.(1)
Explanation: 7+9+2=18
Qn. 30. Ans.(1)
Explanation : 3 + I + 18 = 22
Distribution of terms
Distribution is a technical word here, but it has a
very simple meaning.
Whether a term is fully distributed or not will
depend upon the quantity of the term and the way
in which it is related to the other term.
Let us take a proposition: All men are mortal.
The above proposition contains two terms : (i) men
and (ii) mortal. The term men is the subject and
the term mortal is the predicate.
Now, the proposition All men are mortal fully
distributes the subject term men.
It means that there is not a single men who is not
mortal.
But it does not fully distribute the predicate term
mortal.
In other words, all men are mortal would not mean
all mortal things are men.
There are other mortal things also.
Thus, of the two terms men and mortal, mortal is
a larger term and men is a smaller term.
All men are mortal will therefore be shown in a
Venn diagram with a smaller circle of men in a
larger circle of mortal things as follows.
S- men
P- mortal
( The subject term
is abbreviated as
S and the
predicate term is
abbreviated as P).
S- men
P- mortal
( The subject term
is abbreviated as
S and the
predicate term is
abbreviated as P).
Inductive Reasoning
Suppose a friend of yours, say Anju, takes a trip to Hyderabad. She stays there
for one month. During her stay, on the first Monday, she visits a hotel and finds
that the food served there is very spicy.
On Tuesday, she visits another hotel in a different area and finds the food very
spicy. On Wednesday, she goes to a third hotel in a different locality and here
too she finds that the food is very spicy.
With these exposures to the food in Hyderabad for three days in three different
localities, Anju can conclude that all Andhraites like very spicy food. An
argument in this form is called an inductive argument.
It moves from specific individual facts to a general conclusion. It is not that Anju has
visited every hotel and home in Andhra Pradesh. She does not say that all the hotels
she has visited serve very spicy food but she says that all Andhraites like very spicy
food, i.e., Anju now believes that the next hotel she visits and that every hotel she will
visit in Andhra will definitely serve only spicy food.
Inductive argument differs from the deductive argument; in that in the inductive
argument, the conclusion goes beyond what is stated in the premises.
For this reason with inductive arguments we do not have a guarantee that their
conclusions are absolutely true when their premises are true.
On the other hand, in deductive argument, if the premises are true, the
conclusions based on those premises will also be true.
This is how, while the truth of the premises of an inductive argument provides
support for and good reason to believe the conclusion; it does not actually
testify the truth of the conclusion.
A majority of the general propositions expressing scientific laws and general truths
about the world and inductive Generalizations are based on experience.
Deductive Reasoning
Speaking simply, a proposition means in logic, one puts ones
thoughts into sentences in some language and some of these
sentences make propositions.
Consider the example of oranges, citrus fruit and vitamin C.
1. All oranges are citrus fruit
2. All citrus fruit contains vitamin C.
3. All oranges contain vitamin C.
Each of these propositions declare something to be categorically
true.
We call the above three propositions categorical propositions;
You can also see that each categorical proposition refers to two
classes of things and the parts of the categorical proposition that
refer to these classes are called the terms of the proposition.
So in the above first proposition, the term orange is part of that
proposition referring to the class of things called oranges.
Likewise, the term citrus fruit in lines 1 and 2 refers to the uses of
fruits called citrus fruit.
It all boils down to this : our world contains objects that can be
classified in various ways according to their colours, shapes or
whatever.
Propositions
People think about these objects and classifications.
Statements of and arguments about classifications are said
to express propositions about such classifications.
A categorical proposition has two terms and expresses a
relationship between the classes referred to by these two
terms.
Consider the above three propositions again. Let us take a
set of things containing vitamin C. The above sentences
tell us that citrus fruit is among the things containing
vitamin C.
Of course, there are other things that contain vitamin C
such as potatoes.
We are also told that all oranges belong to the class of
citrus fruit.
It therefore follows that oranges contain vitamin C.
You can now see the structure of this argument if you
consider an arrangement of circles in which each circle
represents a class of things mentioned in the argument.
Deductive Argument
An argument like the one we found is called a deductive
argument.
We deduce something, a conclusion, from some other fact or facts.
A: Doctors
B: Engineers
C: Architects
4.If two item belongs to the class of third such that some
items each of these groups have a common relationship, then
they are represented by two intersecting circles inside a
bigger circle as follows
EXAMPLE
D
E
NEGATIVE CONCLUSIONS
WHENEVER WE COME ACROSS NEGATIVE
CONCLUSIONS, SEE WHETHER THE CONCLUSIONS
FOLLOWS IN THE DIAGRAM DRAWN.
IF IT DOES NOT FOLLOW, SAY IT does not follow AND
Answer either
Since Pintu is dog and Pintu is not dog are contradictory conclusions, we
should look for possibility of answer either. As shown in the diagram
Pintu can be either at position 1 or at Position 2.
Conclusion Considering
Considering
Follows ( \/ )
Follows ( \/ )
(Outside the dog
circle)
Conclusion
Follows ( \/ )
Follows ( \/ )
ILLUSTRATIVE QUESTION-1
ILLUSTRATIVE QUESTION-2
T Towns
V - Villages
C Cities
S - States
or
TVC
Conclusion 1 : Some cities are towns.,,,,,Doesn't follow.
Conclusion 2 : Some villages are state Doesn't follow.
Conclusion 3 :No city is town. . Follows
Conclusion 4 : Some villages are not cities. Follows
or
Statements
(i) : All towns are villages.
(ii) : some villages are cities.
(iii): No city is state.
ILLUSTRATIVE QUESTION-3
DIRECTIONS: In the question below is given three
statements, followed by four conclusions numbered (I),(II),
(III) & (IV). You have to take the given statements to be true,
even if they seem to be at variance from commonly known
facts and then decide which of the given conclusions
logically follow(s) from the given statements, dis-regarding
commonly known facts.
Statement (i) : All post cards are envelops.
Statement (ii) : some post cards are inlands.
Statement (iii) : No inland is stamp.
Conclusion 1 : Some post cards are stamps.
Conclusion 2 : Some stamps are envelops.
Conclusion 3 : Some post cards are envelops.
Conclusion 4 : Some envelops are inlands.
(1) Only (iii) and (IV) follow
(2) Only (iii) follows
(3) either (i) or (iii) follow
(4) All follow
(5) None follow
Statements
(i) : All post cards are envelops.
(ii) : some post cards are inlands.
(iii) : No inland is stamp.
E envelops
P - post cards
I - Inlands
S - Stamps
Conclusion 1 : Some post cards are stamps.. Does not follow
Conclusion 2 : Some stamps are envelops. Does not follow
Conclusion 3 : Some post cards are envelops. ..follows
Conclusion 4 : Some envelops are inlands. .follows
ILLUSTRATIVE QUESTION-4
B Blades
K - Knives
C - Cutters
S - Scissors
ILLUSTRATIVE QUESTION-5
F- Fruits
V- Vegetables
S - Sweet
J - Juicy
ILLUSTRATIVE QUESTION-6
Study the following Venn Diagram and answer questions 1 to
3.
A Clerks
B Graduates
C Government Employees
Q.No.i. Some graduates are Government employees, but not clerks. They are
represented by the area marked ..?
(a) h (b) g (c) f (d) e (e) C
Ans. (c) f
Q.No.ii. Which area represents clerks who are graduates and Government employees?
(a) e (b) f (c) g (d) h (e) B
Q.No.iii. Graduates who are clerks, but not Government employees are represented by
the area marked..?
(a) h (b) f (c) g (d) e (e) B
ILLUSTRATIVE QUESTION-7
ILLUSTRATIVE QUESTION-8
ILLUSTRATIVE QUESTION-9
ILLUSTRATIVE QUESTION-10
ILLUSTRATIVE QUESTION-11
ILLUSTRATIVE QUESTION-12
ILLUSTRATIVE QUESTION-13
ILLUSTRATIVE QUESTION-14
Give answer: (1) If Only conclusion (i) follows (2) If Only conclusion (ii) follows (3)
If either (1) or (2) follows (4) If neither (i) nor (ii) follows (5) If both (i) and (ii)
follows
Statement (i) : All plants are trees.
T Trees
Statement (ii) : Some trees are leaves.
P Plants
Statement (iii) : Some leaves are flowers.
L Leaves
Conclusions:
F - Flowers
Conclusion 1 : Some plants are leaves.
Conclusion 2 : Some plants are flowers.
Qn.2. None of the given conclusions follows using all statements but conclusions
I and II are complementary pair (I - E)pair. Therefore, either conclusion I or II
follows. Hence, option (4) Either I or II is the right answer.
Q.3. None of the given conclusions follows using all statements but conclusions I
and II are complementary pair (A - E), therefore either conclusion I or II follows.
Qn.5. None of the given conclusions follows using all statements therefore none
conclusion is true.
Qn.6. All keys are locks. (A-type) (1) All locks are screws. (A-type) (2)
Conclusions: I. All screws are keys not follows.
From statement (1) Some locks are keys. (Conversion of A)
Qn.7. Statements: Some alpha are beta. All beta are gamma.
Conclusions: I. Some alpha are gamma. II. No alpha is a
gamma. Ill. Some gamma are beta. IV. No gamma is a beta.
(1) Only I follows (2) Only Ill follows (3) Either I or II follows
(4) Either Ill or IV follows (5) I and III follows.
Qn. 8. Statements: All bars are coins. Some bars are books.
Conclusions: I. Some books are bars II. Some books are
coins. Ill. Some books are not bars IV. Some books are not
coins.
(1) Only I follows (2) I and II follows (3) Either I or Ill follows
(4) Either 11 or IV follows (5) I and Either II or IV follows
(1) Iand II follows (2) Only I follows (3) I and IV follow (4) Only IV follows (5) II and IV follow
13. Statement: All tops are ducks. All ducks are watches.
Conclusions: I. Some tops are watches. II. Some tops are not watches. III. All watches are tops. IV.
Some ducks are not tops.
(1) Either I or II follows (2)Either III or IV follows (3) I and either Ill or IV follows (4) III and either I or II
follow (5) None of these
14. Statement: No comb is a tomb. Some tombs are bombs.
Conclusions: I. Some combs are not bombs. II. Some bombs are not combs. III. All combs are
bombs. IV.No combs are bombs.
(1) Only I follows (2 ) Only IV follows (3) I and IV follows (4) Either I or III and II follow (5) Only II
follows
15. Statement: Some big are small. All big are beautiful.
Conclusions: I. All big are not beautiful. II. Some small are beautiful. III. Some beautiful are small.
IV. Some beautiful are not small.
(1) Either III or IV follows (2) Either I or Ill follows (3)11 and Ill follows (4)11 and either III or IV follows
(5) II, Ill and IV follows.
From statements (1) and (2), All watches are scholarship (A + A = A) or Some scholarship
are watches, (conversion of A). There fore conclusion II and Ill follows.
17. Some fuel are dangerous. (I - type) (1) Some watches are not fuel. (0-type) (2)
Some dangerous are not machines. (0-type) (3)
From statement (1), Some dangerous are fuel. Therefore conclusion I follows.
18. All services are elements. (A-type) (1) Some elements are trader. (I - type) (2)
No trader is a blind. (E-type) (3) From statements (2) and (3) Some elements are not blind.
(.l+E=0). Therefore conclusion Ill follows. Conclusions I and IV are complementary pair (I0), therefore either conclusion I or IV follows.
Therefore, right answer is, option (3) III and either I or IV follows
19. Some jokes are needles. (I-type) (1) Some elements are needles. (I - type).. (2)
All elements are funny. (A-type) (3)
From statement (1), Some needles are jokes. Therefore conclusion I follows,
From statement (2), Some needles are elements (4)
From statements (4) and (3) Some needles are funny. Therefore, conclusion Ill follows.
20. All series are alternate; (A - type).. (1) No alternate is a pen. (E-type) (2) Some series are
pencils. (I - type) (3). From statements (1) and (2), No series is a pen. (A + E = E)
Therefore conclusion I follows. From statement (3) Some pencils are series. (I - type)
(4). From statements (4) and (1), Some pencils are alternate. (l+A=l) Therefore conclusion
Ill follow.