Illicit Major
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This page is part of the EvoWiki encyclopedia of fallacies. |
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Explanation
An Illicit Major is an Illicit Process where the premise in which the problematic term is not distributed in the major premise, but is distributed in the conclusion.
Common Form:
- All A are B.
- C are not A.
- Therefore, C are not B.
This argument is fallacious because "All A are B" does not imply "Only B are A".
Example
- All dogs are mammals.
- No cats are dogs.
- Therefore, no cats are mammals.
In this argument, the major term is "mammals". This is distributed in the conclusion (the last statement) because we are making a claim about a property of all mammals: that they are not cats. However, it is not distributed in the major premise (the first statement) where we are only talking about a property of some mammals: Only some mammals are dogs.
