(Therefore) Socrates is mortal.
Syllogism symbolized:
All M is G
S is M
∴ S is G
The major term is always the predicate and the minor term the subject of the conclusion. The conclusion of the foregoing syllogism is, “Socrates is mortal.” Since G stands for the predicate of every conclusion, then it stands for “mortal,” the predicate of the above conclusion. For a similar reason, S stands for the subject, namely, “Socrates”; while M represents the middle term, “man.”
Since every syllogism must have three propositions, and since it takes two terms to form a proposition, then it follows that every syllogism must contain six terms. But, as no syllogism can have more than three different terms, we conclude that each term of the syllogism must be used twice. In the foregoing example, G thus appears, not only in the last proposition, or conclusion, but in the first proposition also. Similarly, both S and M occur twice. Every logical syllogism, then, containsfirst, a major term, which is always the predicate of the conclusion and appears once in the premises; second, a minor term, which is always the subject of the conclusion and appears once in the premises; and third, a middle term to which the other two terms are referred.
There are two ways of locating the middle term; first, it is the term which is used in both the premises; second, it is the term which never appears in the conclusion. Likewise, there are two ways of locating the major and minor terms; first, the major term is always the predicate and the minor term the subject of the conclusion; second, the major term is usually the broader and the minor term the narrower of the two. If the major and minor terms seem to be of about the same extension or breadth, then the term in the first proposition, which is not the middle term, is the major.
In the attending syllogisms the three terms are designated:
(1) All (middle)
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true teachers are (major)
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sympathetic,