Illicit process

	Part of the series on Logic and rhetoric
	Key articles
	Logical fallacy ; Syllogism ; Argument ;
	General logic
	Appeal to confidence ; Argument ; Escape hatch ; Existential assumption ; Negative evidence ; Pierre D'Ailly ;
	Bad logic
	Correlation does not imply causation ; DARVO ; Denying the antecedent ; Enthymeme ; Sanctioning the devil ; Style over substance ; v - t - e

An illicit process and its two forms, the illicit major and the illicit minor, is a logical fallacy in which a flawed conclusion is reached by improper (illicit) distribution in the conclusion of the terms used in the premises.

The fallacy is a syllogistic fallacy and a formal fallacy.

[edit] Explanation

Distributed means that is appears either as "all X" or as "are not X". This means that you have a strong knowledge about X.

Undistributed means it appears as either "some X" or as "are X". This means that you have a rather weak knowledge about X.

So, being undistributed in the premise means that the premises don't say anything about all X. Thus, the knowledge about all X can't appear suddenly in the conclusion.

[edit] Form

An illicit process has two forms.

[edit] Illicit major

P1: All X are Y.

P2: All Z are not X.

C1: All Z are not Y.

Alternately:

P1: All Middle are Major.

P2: All Minor are not Middle.

C1: All Minor are not Major.

[edit] Illicit minor

P1: All X are Y.

P2: All X are Z.

C1: All Y are Z.

Alternately:

P1: All Middle are Major.

P2: All Middle are Minor.

C1: All Major are Minor.

[edit] Examples

[edit] Illicit major

P1: All dogs are mammals.

P2: No cats are dogs.

C1: Therefore, no cats are mammals.

In this argument, the major term is "mammals". This is distributed in the conclusion (the last statement) because we are making a claim about a property of all mammals: that they are not cats. However, it is not distributed in the major premise (the first statement) where we are only talking about a property of some mammals: Only some mammals are dogs.

[edit] Illicit minor

P1: All cats are felines.

P2: All cats are mammals.

C1: All mammals are felines.

The minor term here is mammal, which is not distributed in the minor premise "All cats are mammals," because this premise is only defining a property of possibly some mammals (i.e., that they're cats.) However, in the conclusion "All mammals are felines," mammal is distributed (it is talking about all mammals being felines). It is shown to be false by any mammal that is not a feline; for example, a dog.

[edit] Anti-evolution

In his critique of a creationist article on genetic recombination, Alec MacAndrew identifies several logical flaws including the illicit process of the following form ^[1]:

P1: All recombination causes change in DNA sequences.

P2: All recombination is regulated by cellular mechanisms.

C1: Therefore, all changes in DNA sequence are regulated by cellular mechanisms.

The flaw is that, while recombination may cause change in DNA sequences, it is not proposed as causing all change in DNA sequences. However, the conclusion is about all DNA sequences. The major premise does not distribute across all DNA sequences while the conclusion does.

[edit] Illicit observation

An illicit observation is not an error of illicit process but of ambiguity.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

See the Wikipedia article on Illicit_process.
See the Wikipedia article on Illicit_major.
See the Wikipedia article on Illicit_minor.
Illicit process, illicit major, illicit minor, Fallacy Files
Syllogistic fallacies, Lander University
Illicit Observation, Atheism/Agnosticism About.com
Illicit Minor, Stephen Downes

[edit] References

↑ Alec MacAndrew's Genetic Recombination Misused, a critique of Christopher Ashcroft's A New Look at Genetic Recombination

v - t - e Articles about logical fallacies
Informal fallacies:			Appeal to ancient wisdom • Appeal to mystery • Appeal to nature • Appeal to novelty • Appeal to probability • Appeal to tradition • Argument from morality • Argument from oh bloody hell that was years ago • Argumentum ad lunam • Argumentum ad martyrdom • Balance fallacy • Big words • Certum est quia impossibile est • Circular reasoning • Common sense • Due diligence • Escape to the future • Exception that proves the rule • Extended analogy • Flying carpet fallacy • Golden hammer • Good old days • Hindsight bias • Hyperbole • Imperfect therefore untrustworthy • Infinite regress • Informal fallacy • Mistaking the map for the territory • Moralistic fallacy • Morton's fork • My enemy's enemy • Naturalistic fallacy • Post-designation • Presentism • Relativist fallacy • Sanctioning the devil • Spider-Man fallacy • Sunk cost • Two wrongs make a right • Word magic •
	Ad hoc:		Ad hoc • Escape hatch • God of the gaps • Handwave • Moving the goalposts • Nirvana fallacy • No True Scotsman • PIDOOMA • Slothful induction • Special pleading •
	Arguments from ignorance:		Appeal to censorship • Argument from ignorance • Argument from incredulity • Argument from omniscience • Argument from silence • Holmesian fallacy • Science doesn't know everything • Science was wrong before • Toupee fallacy • Willful ignorance •
	Causation fallacies:		Causalation • Correlation does not imply causation • Counterfactual fallacy • Gambler's fallacy • Genuine but insignificant cause • Post hoc, ergo propter hoc • Regression fallacy • Wrong direction •
	Circular reasoning:		Appeal to faith • Argument by assertion • Argumentum ad dictionarium • Circular reasoning • Infinite regress • Self-refuting idea •
	Emotional appeals:		Appeal to confidence • Appeal to consequences • Appeal to fear • Appeal to flattery • Appeal to gravity • Appeal to hate • Appeal to money • Appeal to pity • Appeal to shame • Argumentum ad baculum • Argumentum ad fastidium • Deepity • Emotional appeal • Loaded language • Pathos gambit • Style over substance • Tone argument •
	Fallacies of ambiguity:		Continuum fallacy • Definitional fallacies • Equivocation • Etymology • Fallacy of accent • Fallacy of ambiguity • Fallacy of amphiboly • Illicit observation • Moral equivalence • Not as bad as • Phantom distinction • Quote mining • Scope fallacy • Suppressed correlative • Wronger than wrong •
Formal fallacies:			Affirmative conclusion from a negative premise • Affirming a disjunct • Affirming the consequent • Chewbacca Defense • Confusion of the inverse • Denying the antecedent • Enthymeme • Existential assumption • Fallacy fallacy • False dilemma • Formal fallacy • Four-term fallacy • Masked man fallacy • Negative conclusion from affirmative premises • Nemmeno sbagliato • Non sequitur • Not even wrong • Substituting explanation for premise • Syllogism •
Fallacious argument styles:			"I used to be an atheist..." • Anti-environmentalism • Apophasis • Appeal to bias • Appeal to censorship • Argumentum ad nauseam • Bait-and-switch • Blaming the victim • Bullshit • Canard • Chewbacca Defense • DARVO • Danth's Law • Demonization • Escape hatch • Friend argument • Gish Gallop • Godwin's Law • Gore's Law • Greece-baiting • Ham Hightail • Intuition pump • Just asking questions • Leading question • Linking to authority • Loaded language • Loaded question • Lying by omission • Motte and bailey • Moving the goalposts • One-way hash argument • One single proof • Pink-baiting • Poisoning the well • Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur • Quote mining • Race card • Red-baiting • Red herring • Release the data • Scapegoat • Science was wrong before • Shill gambit • Silent Majority • Spurious rigor • Straw man • Style over substance • Terrorism-baiting • Uncertainty tactic • Weasel word • What's the harm • Whataboutism •
Conditional fallacies:			Conditional fallacy • On the spot fallacy • Slippery slope • Special pleading • What's the harm •
	Genetic fallacies:		Genetic fallacy •
		Appeals to authority:	Anonymous authority • Appeal to celebrity • Appeal to confidence • Appeal to the minority • Argument from authority • Argumentum ad populum • Galileo gambit • Invincible authority • Ipse dixit • Linking to authority • Professor of nothing • Silent Majority • Ultracrepidarianism •
		Ad hominem:	Ad iram • Appeal to bias • Argumentum ad cellarium • Argumentum ad hominem • Argumentum ad hominem (français) • Association fallacy • Blaming the victim • Bulverism • Damning with faint praise • Demonization • Fallacy of opposition • Jonanism • Nutpicking • Pathos gambit • Poisoning the well • Scapegoat • Shill gambit • Tu quoque • Whataboutism •
	Imprecision fallacies:		Anecdotal evidence • Apex fallacy • Appeal to fiction • Category mistake • Cherry picking • Confounding factor • Fallacy of accident • False analogy • Imprecision fallacy • Nutpicking • Overgeneralization • Overprecision • Pragmatic fallacy • Selection bias • Spotlight fallacy • Texas sharpshooter fallacy •
Valid logical methods:			Logical validity • Negative evidence •
Fallacy collections:			Fallacy Files • Nizkor Project • SeekFind • Your Logical Fallacy Is •

[0] Alec MacAndrew's Genetic Recombination Misused, a critique of Christopher Ashcroft's A New Look at Genetic Recombination

[1]

Illicit process

Contents

[edit] Explanation

[edit] Form

[edit] Illicit major

[edit] Illicit minor

[edit] Examples

[edit] Illicit major

[edit] Illicit minor

[edit] Anti-evolution

[edit] Illicit observation

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

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