How to Think #5: Cesare

Now we move on to our 4th valid syllogism which is named Cesare.

In symbols it looks like this:
No P's are M's
All S's are M's
Therefore, No S's are P's.

My sister Rebecca gave me an excellent example of Cesare:
1. Chickadees are not 3 feet tall.
2. The birds lurking in the backyard are all about 3 feet tall.
3. Therefore none of the birds in the backyard are chickadees.

Be careful with the wording of syllogisms - but you can be a little flexible. If you are not sure if you got it right, try to translate it to exactly match the pattern:
1. No Chickadees are 3 feet tall
2. All the birds lurking in the backyard are 3 feet tall
3. Therefore, no birds lurking in the backyard are chickadees.
Perfect!

One more example of Cesare:
1. No great leaders are out for themselves
2. All Capitalists are out for themselves
3. Therefore: No Capitalists are great leaders.

That one kind of stings!
Are the premises true?
Is this a correct example of Cesare?
If the answer to both of those questions is "Yes" then the conclusion of the syllogism must be true!

Now, compare Cesare and Celarent. They are exactly the same except the terms in the first line are switched.
Cesare starts with: No P's are M's.
Celarent starts with: No M's are Ps.

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Copyright © 2016 by Joseph Wayne Gadway