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Anthony K asked in Arts & HumanitiesPhilosophy · 10 years ago

Good Example of a Non Sequitur?

All Men are Mortal

Socrates' Wife was Mortal

Therefore, Socrates' Wife was a Man.

Any others?

4 Answers

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  • DJ
    Lv 4
    10 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    I don't understand how something works

    Scientific words scare me

    Therefore, God made everything

  • 5 years ago

    Non Sequitur Examples

  • Anonymous
    10 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.

  • 10 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
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