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Logic / Unit 3   Logic 102 short lesson, about 20 seconds

Undistributed Middle

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The idea

If the middle term is distributed in neither premise, the premises never connect — the classic formal fallacy.

In practice

All cats are mammals; all dogs are mammals; ∴ all cats are dogs. "Mammals" undistributed twice; the link never forms.

Where people slip

This is the engine of guilt-by-association reasoning: both share a category, therefore they're the same.

Your place on the trail

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