Existential fallacy
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The existential fallacy is a logical fallacy committed in a categorical syllogism that is invalid because it has two universal premises and a particular conclusion. In other words, for the conclusion to be true a member of the class must exist, but the premises do not establish this.
Example:
- All inhabitants of another planet are friendly people, and all Martians are inhabitants of another planet. Therefore, all Martians are friendly people. (The conclusion assumes there really are some Martians in existence.)
The existential fallacy is a syllogistic fallacy.
External links
- Stephen's guide: existential fallacy (http://www.datanation.com/fallacies/existen.htm)
- Fallacy files: existential fallacy (http://www.fallacyfiles.org/existent.html)
- FOLDOC: existential fallacy (http://www.swif.uniba.it/lei/foldop/foldoc.cgi?existential+fallacy)
- This article was originally based on material from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, which is licensed under the GFDL.