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LOGICAL REASONING

SYLLOGISM

Syllogism

Syllogism is originally a word given by the Greeks. It means ‘inference’ or ‘deduction.The problem of
syllogisms can be solved mentally by using a little intelligence and common sense. Before we start it is
necessary to understand the definition of certain terms.

Proposition

A proposition is a sentence that makes a statement and gives a relationship between two terms. It
consists of three parts:
(1) Subject
(2) Predicate and
(3) Copula

A subject is that part of the preposition about which something is being said. A predicate, on the other
hand, is that term of the proposition which is stated about or related to the subject. A copula s a
connecting word.

Categorical Proposition

A categorical proposition makes a direct assertion. It has no condition attached with It. There are two
categorical propositions.

[A] Universal Proposition

Universal Proposition either fully include the subject or fully exclude it. Examples are:
Usually, universal propositions begin with “All’’, “Every’’, “Any”, “No” etc. A proposition of the “All” type is
universal positive proposition while a proposition of the latter is universal negative proposition. Universal
positive proposition is denoted by “A” whereas universal negative proposition is denoted by “E”

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 [B] Particular Proposition

Particular Proposition either only partly includes or only partly excludes the subject while making a
statement. Examples are:
Some rectangles are squares.
Some spheres are not circles.
A proposition of the former type are called particular positive proposition and is denoted by “I” whereas a
proposition of the latter type are called particular negative proposition and is denoted by “O’’.

Euler’s Circles or Venn Diagram

The best method of solving the Syllogism’s problems is Euler’s circle or Venn diagram. There are four
ways in which the relationship between the subject and predicate can be made.

Example:
All Lions are Animal All Birds can Fly

Type 2; ‘No A is B’ means that circles

denoting A and B do not intersect at all.

Example:
No Man is Bad No Man is Woman

Type 3: ‘Some A are B’ it means that some part of the circle denoted by A is within the circle denoted by
B. This type of statement gives the following conclusions.

(i) Some A are B. ⟹ Some A are not B

(ii) Some A are B ⟹ All A are B (As we do not know about rest of A)

(ii) Some A are B ⟹ All B are A

(iv) Some A are B ⟹ All A are B and all B are A

Example :
Some mosquitoes are insects

(i) (ii)

(iii) (iv)

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 Type 4: ‘Some A are not B’, in this case some portion of circle A has no intersection with circle B while
the remaining portion of circle A is uncertain whether this portion touches B or not. So this type of
statement gives two conclusion.

(i) Some A are not B ⟹ some A are B

(ii) Some A are not B ⟹ No A is B.

Analytical Method

Try to understand these type of questions using analytical method.

A statement always has a subject and a predicate: All politicians are liars.
(subject) (predicate)
Basically, there are four types of sentences.
A — type ⟹ All politicians are liars. I — type ⟹ Some politicians are liars.
O — type ⟹ Some politicians are not liars. E — type ⟹ No politicians are liars.

Conclusions can be drawn by taking two of the above statements together. The rules of conclusion are:
A+A=A A+E=E I+A=I I+E=O E + A = O* E + I = O*
Conclusion can only be drawn from the two statements if the predicate of the first statement is the subject
of the second statement. The common term disappear in the conclusion and it consists of subject of the
first statement and predicate of the second statement.
Relevance of O*: O* represent that the subject and the predicate are interchanged in the statement of
conclusion.
Examples:
I. A+A=A
(i) All boys are girls. (ii) All girls are healthy.
Conclusion: All boys are healthy.
II. A+E=E
(i) All boys are girls (ii) No girls are healthy.
Conclusion: No boys are healthy.
III. I+A=I
(i) Some boys are girls. (ii) All girls are healthy.
Conclusion: Some boys are healthy.

IV. I+E=O
(I) Some boys are girls. (ii) No girls are healthy.
Conclusion: Some boys are not healthy.
V. E + A = 0*
(i) No boys are girls. (ii). All girls are healthy.
Conclusion: Some healthy are not boys. -

VI. E + I = O*
(i) No boys are girls. (ii) Some girls are healthy.
Conclusion: Some healthy are not boys.

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 Note: In order to draw conclusion between two sentences where predicate of first sentence is not the
subject of the second sentence, we use alignment rule which is called conversion of sentence in which
subject and predicate are interchanged and end type of sentence at times also changes.

Type of sentence Conversion

A (All boys are girls) I (Some girls are boys)
I (Some boys are girls) I (Some girls are boys)
E (No boys are Girls) E (No girls are boys)

Complementary pairs:

Conclusions: (i) Some boys are girls.

(ii) Some boys are not girls.

Remember that one of these conclusions must be true and is represented by option either (i) or (ii).
These type of pairs are called complementary pairs. The complementary pairs are I - O type, A - O type
and I - E type. The subject and predicate are common in both types of sentences in a complementary
pair.

Note: Complementary pair should only be opted if none of the conclusions are valid.

Practice Examples

Directions: (Q.1-Q.5): Each question has a set of four statements. Each statement has three segments.
Choose the alternative where the third segment can be logically deduced using both the preceding two,
but not just from one of them.

1. (A) All IITs are in India, no MITs are in India, no IITs are MTs
(B) All IITs are in India, no MITs are in India, no MITs are IITs
(C) Some IITs are not in India, some MITs are not in India, some IITs are MITs
(D) Some IITs are not in India, some MITs are not in India, some MITs are IITs
(a) A and B (b) C and D (c) A only (d) B only

2. (A) Citizen of true villages speak only the truth. Citizen of true villages are wealthy. Wealthy
people speak only the truth.
(B) Citizen of true villages speak only the truth. Some true villages are in America. Some citizens of true
villages are in the America.
(C) Citizen of true. villages speak only the truth. Some wealthy people are citizen of true
villages. Some wealthy people speak only the truth.
(D) Some people speak only the truth. Some citizen of true villages speak only the truth. Some
people who speak only the truth are citizens of true villages.
(a) A only (b) B only (c) B and C (d) D only

3. (A) Some sportsman smoke. Those who smoke are punished. Some who are punished are not
sportsman.
(B) No Indians weep. Some who weep are cowards. Some Cowards are not Indian.
(C) All horses are white. White things shine. Some shining things are not horse.
(D) All children are vulnerable All vulnerable need care. Some children need care.
(a) B only (b) C only (c) B and D (d) C and D

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4. (A) Some painters are artists. Some artists are crazy. Some painters are crazy.
(B) Some heroes are villain. All villains are bad. Some heroes are bad.
(C) Some men are humans. Some humans are bad. Some men are bad.
(D) Some teachers are didactic. All didactic person are boring. Some boring person are not teachers.
(a) B and C (b) C and D (c) B and D (d) Only B

5. (A) Some roses are flowers. Some flowers do not stink. Some stinking thing are not rose.
(B) Some sheep are black. Some black things are invisible. Some sheep are invisible.
(C) Some parrots are green. All greens are grass. Some grass are not parrot.
(D) Some library contains books. Some books contain pages. Some library contains pages.
(a) A and D (b) B and D (c) C and D (d) None follows

Directions (Q.6-Q.10): Each of the following question has a set of three segments. Each segments has
three statements. Choose the alternative where the third statement in a segment can be logically
deduced from both the preceding two, but not just from one of them.

6. (A) Some trees are buses. All buses are hats. All trees are hats.
(B) Some trucks are scooters. No scooter is cycle. Some trucks are cycle.
(C) All green are blue. All blue are white. Some white are green.
(D) No educationists are researchers. All researchers are teachers. No teacher is educationist.
(a) A only (b) B only (c) C only (d) D only

7. (A) All boys are honest. Manish is honest. Manish is a boy.

(B) Lawyers married only fair girls. Shobha is very fair. Shobha was not married to a lawyer.
(C) Sohan is a sportsman. All sportsmen are healthy. All. healthy persons are sportsmen.
(D) All hill stations have a sunset point. M is a hill station. M has a sunset point.
(a) A only (b) B only (c) C only (d) D only

8. (A) All students in my class are intelligent. Rohit is not intelligent. Rohit is not a student of my class.
(B) All plants are trees. No tree is green. Those plants which are not trees are green.
(C) Some sticks are bolts. Kites are sticks. Some kites are-bolts.
(D) No magazine is a cap. All caps are. cameras. Some camera are not magazines.
(a) A and D (b) B and C (c) C only (d) D only

9. (A) All young scientists are open-minded. No open-minded men are superstitious. No young
people are superstitious.
(B) Some soldiers are famous. Some soldiers are intelligent. Some soldiers are either famous or
intelligent.
(C) All men are married. Some men are educated. Some educated are married.
(D) Many books are rocks. Some rocks are dips. Some books are clips.
(a) A only (2) B only (3) C only (4) D only

10. (A) Some aeroplanes are living beings. Some non-living beings are ghosts. Some aeroplanes are ghosts.
(B) All teachers are good. Syriac is Good. Syriac is a teacher.
(C) All stones are diamonds. Some diamonds are pearls. Some pearls are stones.
(D) No women can vote. Some women are politicians. Some politicians cannot vote.

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 Directions (Q.11-Q.15): Each question contains six statements labeled A, B, C, D, E & F followed by
four combinations of three statement. Choose the set in which the statements are logically related i.e. the
third statement can be deduced from the first two statements together.

11. (A) College students are intelligent.

(B) Intelligence is a collegian’s attribute.
(C) Ram’s sister is a college student.
(D) Ram is a college student.
(E) All intelligent persons go to college.
(F) Ram is intelligent.
(a) ADF (b) BCD (c) ABF (d) ABD

12. (A) Laxman is a man

(B) Meera is Laxman’s wife.
(C) Some women are islands.
(D) No man is an island.
(E) Meera is not an island.
(F) Laxman is not an island.
(a) ADE (b) ABE (c) ADF (d) CDE

13. (A) Study of philosophy makes a person reflective.

(B) History makes us conscientious.
(C) School level teaching is important.
(D) Mathematics sharpens the mind.
(E) School level studies becomes the base of life.
(F) Philosophy and Mathematics should both be taught to make students reflective and sharp.
(a) ABC (b) BCD (c) ADF (d) CEF

14. (A) All that glitters is gold.

(B) All that doesn’t glitter is not gold.
(C) Gold always glitters.
(D) The only glittering thing is gold.
(E) Object X is gold.
(F) Object X glitters.
(a) ACB (b) DEF (c) AEF (d) FEA

15. (A) Suresh is a human being.

(B) Divya is Suresh’s wife.
(C) Some women are Goddesses.
(D) No human being is a God.
(E) Divya is a Goddess.
(F) Suresh is not a God.
(a) ADE (b) ABE (c) ADF (d) CDB

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 EXPLANATION
1. Let IITs be denoted by circle I, MITs be denoted by
circle M

4. Ans. (c)

(A)

clearly no IITs are MITs, also no MITs are IITs. Hence

(A) and (B) follow.From statement C and D

2. Ans (c) A (i)

Clearly, we can not say that all wealthy people speak

only the truth.
5. Ans. (d)

Hence (B) is true.

Clearly, the inference is correct.

6. Ans. (c)

Hence (D) is not true.

3. Ans. (c)

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7. Ans. (d)

Third statement “Ram is intelligent” can be deduced by

first two statement A and D.
(2) BCD, D can not be deduced by B and C.
(3) ABF, in statement A and B, there is no reference about
Ram, so F can not be deduced from A and B. Same
is the case With option (4).

12. Ans.(c)
(1) ADE. In A and D there is no discussion about Meera,
so E cannot be deduced by A and D.
(2) ABE. In A and B there is no clue about islands. So E
cannot be deduced about AB.
8. Ans. (d)

(3)
(4) CDE, E cannot be deduced from C and D.
13. Ans. (c)
(1) ABC, C cannot be deduced by A and B.
9. Ans. (c) (2) BCD, D cannot be deduced by B and C.

(3)

14. Ans. (a)

10. Ans. (d)

15. Ans. (c)

11. Ans.(a)

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