1 reference results for: Existential fallacy
Wikipedia
The existential fallacy, or existential instantiation, is a logical fallacy committed in a categorical syllogism that is invalid because it has two universal premises and a particular conclusion. In other words, for the conclusion to be true, at least one member of the class must exist, but the premises do not establish this.
Example:
- All inhabitants of other planets are friendly, and all Martians are inhabitants of another planet. Therefore, some Martians are friendly. (The conclusion assumes there really are some Martians in existence.)
- All unicorns are animals, therefore some animals are unicorns. (This conclusion assumes that unicorns exist.)
The existential fallacy is a syllogistic fallacy. Modern logical constructs, however, allow for conditional logic ("If unicorns existed...")
See also
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Last updated on Sunday March 23, 2008 at 09:19:04 PDT (GMT -0700)
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Sunday March 23, 2008 at 09:19:04 PDT (GMT -0700)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation
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