López-Astorga, M. 2014. La problemática acerca de la conclusión del silogismo de la primera figura. Cinta moebio 50: 93-100

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The problem on the conclusion of the syllogism in the first figure

Dr. Miguel López-Astorga (milopez@utalca.cl) Instituto de Estudios Humanísticos Juan Ignacio Molina, Universidad de Talca (Talca, Chile)

Abstract

Espino and Santamaria experimentally demonstrate that, if the syllogisms in the first figure are not presented as is the usual practice, that is, separating their two premises into two different lines, but linking the two premises into one line by means of a full stop, individuals tend to draw from such premises conclusions in which the subject and the predicate are not in the customary order, but rotated. In their view, this finding is consistent with the assumptions of the mental models theory. Nevertheless, in this paper, I will show that what this fact really depends on the approach that is adopted, since a framework based on formal logic also has resources to explain it, and hence can lead us to assume theses different from those proposed by Espino and Santamaria.

Key words: first figure, formal logic, inferential activity, mental models, syllogism.