Deductive Reasoning
If the premises are true and the form is valid, the conclusion must be true; the power and the trap are the same — a valid argument from a smuggled premise produces a certain-feeling false conclusion.
An everyday example
'All enterprise buyers need SSO; you are an enterprise buyer; therefore you need our SSO tier' — where the first premise was never checked.
What it can cost you
Accepting a conclusion because the logic is clean while the premise was supplied by the persuader.
Warning signs
- The logic is airtight and I did not check the inputs.
- I agreed with the conclusion before hearing the reasoning.
One thing to do
For any 'therefore', write out the premises and check each one separately from the logic.
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