Baralipton

In Aristotelian

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premise ...

, Baralipton (also Bamalip or Bramantip) is a

mnemonic A mnemonic ( ) device, or memory device, is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval (remembering) in the human memory for better understanding. Mnemonics make use of elaborative encoding, retrieval cues, and imag ...

word used to identify a form of syllogism. Specifically, the first two

proposition In logic and linguistics, a proposition is the meaning of a declarative sentence. In philosophy, " meaning" is understood to be a non-linguistic entity which is shared by all sentences with the same meaning. Equivalently, a proposition is the no ...

s are universal affirmative (A), and the third (conclusion) particular affirmative (I)-- hence ''B''A''R''A''L''I''PTON''. The argument is also in the First Figure (the middle term is the subject of the first premise and the predicate of the second premise), and therefore would be found in the first portion of the full mnemonic poem as formulated by

William of Sherwood William of Sherwood or William Sherwood (Latin: ''Guillielmus de Shireswode''; ), with numerous variant spellings, was a medieval English scholastic philosopher, logician, and teacher. Little is known of his life, but he is thought to have studied ...

; later this syllogism came to be considered one of the Fourth Figure. Generally stated: :All M is P :All S is M :Therefore some P is S. For example, :Every evil ought to be feared. :Every violent passion is an evil. :Therefore, some things that ought to be feared are violent passions. In traditional Aristotelian logic, Baralipton is just a weakened form of Barbara (where the conclusion is also universal affirmative: ''All'' S are P). According to modern logic, Baralipton commits the

existential fallacy The existential fallacy, or existential instantiation, is a formal fallacy. In the existential fallacy, one presupposes that a class has members when one is not supposed to do so; i.e., when one should not assume existential import. Not to be c ...

. {{logic-stub Term logic Syllogism