Premise

Common card · No. 273085

A premise is a proposition offered to support a conclusion. Premises are true or false statements that act as the starting points of arguments by presenting reasons to substantiate or refute assertions. Each argument is made up of a set of premises together with a conclusion. For example, the premises "all men are mortal" and "Socrates is a man" guarantee the conclusion "Socrates is mortal". In ordinary language, premises can appear in the middle of a passage, often marked by indicator words, such as since and because. In formal logic, a common approach is to write each premise on a separate line, known as standard form. Different types of premises are distinguished by their form of expression, their role in arguments, and their content. Explicit premises are overtly stated, whereas implicit premises are tacitly assumed without appearing in the text, often involving uncontroversial common-sense information shared by speaker and audience. Independent premises present distinct reasons, providing...

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