| Sumario: | This article discusses the concepts of logic and rhetoric based on the fundamental philosophical tenets proposed by Greek philosopher Aristotle. According to Aristotle, rhetoric is antistrophic to dialectic. On the other hand, Bertrand Russell, the Vienna Circle, and other philosophers believe that only experimental verification or deductive reasoning justify conclusions and that all other rhetorical elements consist of irrational and hence invalid persuasion. In classical Greek, the word sylloge relates to a gathering, collection or assembly. Because Aristotle thought inductive inferences were matters of example, and because he was quite unaware of abductive inferences, he used the word syllogismos to refer only to deductive inferences. Although he says he means by the word syllogismos what is called deductive inferences, he nonetheless examines in practice only those deductive arguments comprising three categorical propositions sharing three terms. This concentration on solely categorical syllogisms effectively eliminates from consideration all other kinds of deductive arguments, most notably relational arguments. Unfortunately, some students of rhetoric think that formal logic consists solely of deductive logic.
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