Premise

In discourse and logic, a premise (also "premiss" in British usage) is a claim that is a reason (or element of a set of reasons) for, or objection against, some other claim. In other words, it is a statement presumed true within the context of an argument toward a conclusion. Premises are sometimes stated explicitly by way of disambiguation or for emphasis, but more often they are left tacitly understood as being obvious or self-evident ("it goes without saying"), or not conducive to succinct discourse. For example, in the argument

Socrates is mortal, since all men are

it is evident that a tacitly understood claim is that Socrates is a man. The fully expressed reasoning is thus:

Since all men are mortal and Socrates is a man, it follows that Socrates is mortal.

In this example, the first two independent clauses preceding the comma (namely, "all men are mortal" and "Socrates is a man") are the premises, while "Socrates is mortal" is the conclusion.

In the context of ordinary argumentation, the rational acceptability of a disputed conclusion depends on both the truth of the premises and the soundness of the reasoning from the premises to the conclusion.

See also

• Argument map
• Argumentation theory
• Co-premise
• Inference objection
• Main contention
• Proposition
• Statement in mathematical logic and philosophy
• Validity

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Last updated on Wednesday February 27, 2008 at 18:38:29 PST (GMT -0800)
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