Premise facts for kids
A premise is a statement that acts like a starting point or a basic idea in an argument. Think of it as a piece of information or a fact that you use to support what you are trying to prove. When you make an argument, you use premises as the reasons or evidence to lead to your main point, which is called the conclusion.
For an argument to be strong, two things are important:
- The premises themselves must be true.
- The way you connect the premises to the conclusion must make sense. This connection is called the validity of the argument.
Aristotle's Ideas on Logic
The famous ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle had a lot to say about logic. He believed that most logical arguments could be broken down into three main parts: two premises and one conclusion.
Sometimes, a premise might not be clearly stated. When this happens, we call it a missing premise. For example, imagine someone says:
- Socrates is mortal, since all men are mortal.
At first glance, it might seem like only one premise is given ("all men are mortal"). But to fully understand the argument, we also need to know that Socrates is a man. This unstated idea is the missing premise.
If we write out the full argument, it looks like this:
- Since all men are mortal and Socrates is a man, Socrates is mortal.
In this example:
- "All men are mortal" is the first premise.
- "Socrates is a man" is the second premise (the one that was missing at first).
- "Socrates is mortal" is the conclusion.
Premises in Mathematical Logic
In logic, especially mathematical logic, an argument usually starts with a set of two statements. These statements are the premises. From these two premises, you then try to reach a third statement, which is the conclusion. This setup of two premises leading to one conclusion is the most basic way to build an argument.
More complicated arguments can use many premises and a series of steps to reach a conclusion. They might even use special rules, like the rules of inference in symbolic logic, to connect different ideas and draw new conclusions from the original premises.
See also
In Spanish: Premisa para niños
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