Deductive or Syllogistic Inference, from universal to particular, e.g.
Each inference contains three terms. In syllogistic inference the subject of the conclusion is the minor term, and its predicate the major term, while between these two extremes the term common to the two premises is the middle term, and the premise containing the middle and major terms is the major premise, the premise containing the middle and minor terms the minor premise.
He had been bred by his father in a great veneration for the syllogistic logic as an antidote against confused thinking.
In his Westminster review of Whately's Logic in 1828 (invaluable to all students of the genesis of Mill's logic) he appears, curiously enough, as an ardent and brilliant champion of the syllogistic logic against highfliers such as the Scottish philosophers who talk of "superseding" it by "a supposed system of inductive logic."
The form of exposition is that of dialogue; the method of reasoning is the syllogistic. The leading thoughts are the following.
