reduction

reduction, in syllogistic, or traditional, logic, method of rearranging the terms in one or both premises of a syllogism, or argument form, to express it in a different figure; the placement of the middle, or repeated, term is altered, usually to a preferred pattern. Aristotle took as primary the first figure, in which the middle term (M) is in the pattern S and P being the subject term and predicate term, respectively, of the conclusion; he therefore reduced syllogisms of the second, third, and fourth figures to the first figure. For example, the second figure syllogismcan be reduced to a first figure syllogism by simply converting the first premise to the equivalent “No B is A.”

The desire to perform reductions was based on the notion that only syllogisms of the first figure were self-evident. Reduction to other figures, however, could also have been chosen.