Some 2,300 years ago, Aristotle introduced the syllogism into the intellectual world. A threeelement formula, it is the elementary building block of syllogistic logic and deductive reasoning. The syllogism combines a general statement (called the major premise) and a specific statement (the minor premise) to reach a conclusion. Below is the classic pedagogical (instructional) example of a syllogism, which contains two premises and a conclusion; in practice, however, a syllogism may contain any number of premises:
Major premise: All men are mortal.
Minor premise: Socrates is a man.
Conclusion: Socrates is mortal.
In contrast to inductive reasoning, which looks out into the world and searches for probable evidence to create the premises that support a conclusion, deductive reasoning assumes the factual truth of the premises. So, you may believe that we are taking a bit of a risk in the formulation of the major premise of the syllogism that follows—
All philosophers are human.
My philosophy professor is a philosopher.
Therefore, my philosophy professor is human.
But we know the syllogism is valid, and we can draw on experience to evaluate the truth of its premises
That brings us to one more syllogism:
Most literate humans prefer good writing to bad writing.
My philosophy professor is a literate human.
My philosophy professor likely prefers good writing to bad writing.
You can reasonably assume that what your philosophy professor wants to see in your writing is the same thing most literate human beings want to see: good writing. Since philosophers are radically different from most people in that the business of a philosopher is to ask questions about ordinary things, the very things the majority takes for granted, it should be reassuring that, when it comes to writing, your philosophy professor shares certain basic expectations, preferences, and standards with most other literate people, including you. In short, come to the philosophy class with the same intention you bring to your other classes, which is to produce good work, including good writing.
