Capstone: Full Syllogism Analysis

This capstone takes one syllogism in rough prose and runs it end to end: translation, reordering, mood and figure, the Venn test, the five rules, and a verdict stated under both standpoints.

The passage reads: only licensed contractors bid on county work, and some bidders are not licensed contractors, so some bidders do not bid on county work. Translate first. Only licensed contractors bid on county work puts the term after only in the predicate position: all who bid on county work are licensed contractors. The second claim is already close to standard: some bidders are not licensed contractors. The conclusion: some bidders are not persons who bid on county work. Now order it. The predicate of the conclusion is persons who bid on county work, so the premise containing it is the major, and it already stands first. Read the letters: A, O, O. The middle term is licensed contractors — predicate of the major, predicate of the minor — which makes this figure two. AOO-2. Run the Venn test. Shade for the universal premise, then place the X for the particular one in the only region left open to it. Inspect the region the conclusion needs occupied, and the X is already there. Valid. Confirm with the five rules. The middle term is distributed in the major premise as the predicate of an A statement under the second figure. No term is distributed in the conclusion that was undistributed in its premise. One premise is negative and the conclusion is negative, as required. No rule is broken. Two independent methods, one verdict. Under the Boolean standpoint no existential claim was smuggled in, since the particular premise supplies the X itself, so the verdict holds there as well as under the Aristotelian.