Illicit minor

Formal fallacies ā†’ Syllogistic / quantification

Illicit minor is when you jump from facts about one small group to a claim about a bigger group without the link being strong enough. You use a subset (e.g. poodles) in both premises but then conclude something about the whole set (e.g. all dogs). What's true of the subset isn't necessarily true of the whole. The argument form is invalid because the middle term isn't distributed correctly in the minor premise.

Examples

  • All poodles are dogs. All poodles are pets. So all dogs are pets.

  • All square numbers are integers. All square numbers are positive. So all integers are positive.

  • All electric cars are vehicles. All electric cars need charging. So all vehicles need charging.

  • All full-time staff get benefits. All full-time staff are on the payroll. So everyone on the payroll gets benefits.

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