ON ELIMINATION.

1. In the examples discussed in the last chapter, all the elements of the original premiss re-appeared in the conclusion, only in a different order, and with a different connexion. But it more usually happens in common reasoning, and especially when we have more than one premiss, that some of the elements are required not to appear in the conclusion. Such elements, or, as they are commonly called, “middle terms,” may be considered as introduced into the original propositions only for the sake of that connexion which they assist to establish among the other elements, which are alone designed to enter into the expression of the conclusion.

2. Respecting such intermediate elements, or middle terms, some erroneous notions prevail. It is a general opinion, to which, however, the examples contained in the last chapter furnish a contradiction, that inference consists peculiarly in the elimination of such terms, and that the elementary type of this process is exhibited in the elimination of one middle term from two premises, so as to produce a single resulting conclusion into which that term does not enter. Hence it is commonly held, that syllogism is the basis, or else the common type, of all inference, which may thus, however complex its form and structure, be resolved into a series of syllogisms. The propriety of this view will be considered in a subsequent chapter.