Intermediate quantifiers versus percentages

Abstract

In his 1986 paper (Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic) Thompson offers rules for determining validity and invalidity of so-called “statistical syllogisms” (syllogisms with percentages replacing the traditional quantities of universal and particular) which are both unsound and incomplete. As a result, his claim that the genuine 5-quantity syllogistic (the traditional syllogistic with the three “intermediate” quantities added, expressible by “few”, “many”, and “most”) is included in his system is trivial, if true at all. It turns out not to be even true, as revealed by detailed examination of distribution, Thompson’s rules, and his claims for equivalences. © 1991, Duke University Press. All Rights Reserved.