1 About Disha publication One of the leading publishers in India, Disha Publication provides books and study materials for schools and various competitive exams being continuously held across the country. Disha's sole purpose is to encourage a student to get the best out of preparation. Disha Publication offers an online bookstore to help students buy exam books online with ease. We, at Disha provide a wide array of Bank Exam books to help all those aspirants who wish to crack their respective different levels of bank exams. At Disha Publication, we strive to bring out the best guidebooks that students would find to be the most useful for Bank Probationary exams. 6 Syllogism Exam Importance Exam Importance CAT Very Important IBPS/Bank PO Very Important XAT Very Important BANK Clerk Very Important IIFT Very Important SSC Very Important SNAP Very Important CSAT Very Important NMAT Very Important Other Govt Exams Very Important Other Aptitude Test Very Important Introduction Syllogism is one of the very important chapters for any aptitude test exam. In these types of questions premise has generally two statements on the basis of which a deduction has to be made for conclusion. And then that conclusion we have to select from the given options
2 Text here Text here We may have a case where from the given premise no conclusion can be drawn There are two methods to solve these types of questions:- Venn Diagram (ii) Rules of deduction. Now we will see how to derive conclusion from the given premise from these two methods but before that let s have a look at the different components of the premise and for that take two example of premise- All are Hats.. All Hats are.. (ii) The premises normally start with qualifiers or quantifiers, e.g. the word All, No, some and Some Not. The word All has its synonyms as Every, Any, Each, whereas the word Some can also be replaced by Many, Few, A little, Most of, Much of, More, etc. (ii) A premise consists of a subject and a predicate wherein the first term [e.g. in statement ] is the
3 subject and the second term [e.g. Hats in statement ] the predicate. Similarly, in statement (ii), Hats is called the subject and is the predicate. (iii) The word that occurs in both the premises is known as the middle term (in this example since Hats is in both the premise hence it is called middle term). (iv) The conclusion of the premise middle term should not appear and conclusion should consist of the other two words ( and in the above example) and the. The premises can be divided into 2 types (Based on qualifier) (A) Universal statements [ if the qualifier used in the premise is All, Every, Any, Each ] (B) Particular statements [if the qualifier used in the premise is Some, Many, Few, A little, Most of, Much of, More, etc] The premises can be divided into 2 types (Based on type of statement)- (A) Positive (affirmative) statements [ if premise has no negation] (B) Negative statements [If premise has a negative term like not or no] The combination of the two different categories of classifications leads to four different premises as given in Table below. All, Every, Any, Each Universal/ Particular Universal Affirmative/ Negative Affirmative No, Not None Universal Negative Some, Many Particular Affirmative Some not, Many not Particular Negative The subject or the predicate can be either distributed or not distributed in the given premise. The subject and the predicate are either distributed (indicated as yes) or not distributed (indicated as no) depending on what kind of a statement it is. Table below shows the distribution pattern of the subject and the predicate. Please note that:- Universal affirmative Example Subject Predicate All, Every, Any, Each Yes Universal negative No, Not None Yes Yes Particular affirmative Some, Many No No Particular negative Some not, Many not No Yes Subject is distributed only in Universal statements. (ii) Predicate is distributed in Negative statement. RULES FOR DEDUCTIONS 1. Every deduction should contain three and only three distinct terms. 2. The middle term must be distributed at least once in the premises. 3. If one premise is negative, then the conclusion must be negative. 4. If one premise is particular, then the conclusion must be particular. 5. If both the premises are negative, no conclusion can be drawn. 6. If both the premises are particular, no conclusion can be drawn. 7. No term can be distributed in the conclusion, if it is not distributed in the premises. Now let s take few examples to understand this- Example 1) Find the conclusion of No
4 All are (ii) All are Solution : Now look at the minute details of each premise- Here the first statement starts with All which is Universal affirmative hence it is a universal affirmative statement, and the subject () is distributed but the predicate () is not distributed. (ii) The second statement is also Universal affirmative, the subject is distributed and the predicate is not distributed. (iii) Here the middle term is as it occurs in both the premises. (iv) Middle term is is distributed once in the premises (In this example Premise ii) hence it satisfies Rule [2] hence we can find a conclusion. (v) Conclusion will have two terms and these terms are and (vi) As is distributed in the 1 st premises and is not distributed, (vii) In final conclusion is distributed but is not distributed. Conclusion: All are Note of Caution: The conclusion cannot be All are as in this case we have distributed the Venn diagram approach:- All are : Can be represented as- (ii) All are : Can be represented as- Overall conclusion is: Hence final conclusion is all rats are cats. Example 2) Find the conclusion of All are (ii) Some are Solution: Now look at the minute details of each premise- Here the first statement starts with All which is Universal affirmative hence it is a universal affirmative statement, and the subject () is distributed but the predicate () is not distributed. (ii) Here the 2 nd statement starts with Some which is Particular affirmative hence it is a Particular affirmative
statement, and the subject () is not distributed and the predicate () is not distributed. (iii) Here the middle term is as it occurs in both the premises. (iv) Middle term is is distributed once in the premises (In this example Premise i) hence it satisfies Rule [2] hence we can find a conclusion. (v) Conclusion will have two terms and these terms are and (vi) In premise neither nor are distributed; so in conclusion they should not be distributed. Conclusion: Some are or some are Venn diagram approach All are : Can be represented as- (ii) Some are : Can be represented as- 5
6 Overall conclusion is: Hence final conclusion is Some are or some are. Or Example 3) Find the conclusion of All are (ii) No are Solution: Now look at the minute details of each premise- Here the first statement starts with All which is Universal affirmative hence it is a universal affirmative statement, and the subject () is distributed but the predicate () is not distributed. (ii) Here the 2 nd statement starts with No which is Universal negative hence both subject () and the predicate () is distributed. (iii) Here the middle term is as it occurs in both the premises. (iv) Middle term is is distributed once in the premises (In this example Premise ii) hence it satisfies Rule [2] hence we can find a conclusion. (v) Conclusion will have two terms and these terms are and (vi) Since one of the premises is negative hence conclusion must be negative. (vii) In premise both and is distributed, so in final conclusion they should be distributed. Conclusion: No are cats or No are