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Good Example of a Non Sequitur?
All Men are Mortal
Socrates' Wife was Mortal
Therefore, Socrates' Wife was a Man.
Any others?
4 Answers
- DJLv 410 years agoFavorite Answer
I don't understand how something works
Scientific words scare me
Therefore, God made everything
- Anonymous10 years ago
A non-sequitur is when a conclusion doesn't follow from the premises. Your example isn't a non-sequitur because the conclusion logically follows. Technically, all formal fallacies are special cases of the non-sequitur, but when people speak of a non-sequitur in a casual sense, they're referring to an argument where the conclusion is completely disconnected from the premises. An example:
All men are mortal
Socrates' wife was mortal
Therefor, the chicken crossed the road.
- elenchuskbLv 610 years ago
Philo is wrong. Your conclusion does not follow. The fallacy is a case of undistributed middle term, for the term "mortal" is taken particularly or "undistributed" in both the major [Every man is mortal] and minor [Xanthippe is mortal] premisses. Additionally your "men" in the major premiss, actually means "humans", but "man" in the conclusion arguably means "male" indicating a possible fallacy of ambiguity, in addition to the undistributed middle fallacy. That fallacy (of undistributed middle term), which results in an actual non-sequitur (as you correctly note) is easily demonstrable by using a different minor term which is as obviously mortal as human beings, such as:
Every man is mortal [true major]
This cat is mortal [true minor]
Therefore This cat is a man [false conclusion; fallacy undistributed middle].
Any logical fallacy results in a "non-sequitur" [does not follow].
Illicit majors; Illicit minors; Logical Quadrupeds; and shifts from logical to real supposition all result in non-sequiturs.
Kevin
Source(s): Basic Logic; Raymond J. McCall