(4) “George Washington never told a lie, but you, when tempted, yielded with no qualms of conscience.”
Completing, and arranging logically gives:
E George Washington never told a lie,
A You did tell a lie,
E ∴ You (in this respect) are not like George Washington.
Treated properly this argument proves to be valid; the student, however, is apt to deal with such in this wise:
O George Washington never told a lie,
I You did tell a lie,
O ∴ You (in this respect) are not like George Washington.
When placed in this mood the argument is invalid; since the major term, which is distributed in the conclusion, is not distributed in the premise where it occurs (illicit major). It is the tendency on the part of students to classify as particular, a proposition which has as its subjecta singular term. Such propositions we have learned to call individual. The cause of this tendency is easily explained: Consider the propositions, (1) “This man is mortal”; (2) “Some men are mortal”; (3) “All men are mortal.” In the first instance “mortal” refers to the subject “man” which is narrower in significance than “some men” to which “mortal” of the second proposition refers. In consequence, it is very natural to infer that if, “Some men are mortal,” is particular, then, “This man is mortal,” is likewise particular. The error springs from a wrong conception of particular as used in logic; the content of the term has little to do with extension, but is chiefly concerned with indefiniteness. A particular proposition is one in which the predicate refers to only a part of an indefinite subject. If the subject is referred to as a whole, and this whole is more or less definite, then the proposition is universal. Since “mortal” refers to the whole of the definite term “this man,” as positively as it refers to the whole of “all men,” there is as much justification in calling the first proposition universal as there is in calling the third universal. It may be remembered, then, that logicians class as universal all individual propositions.