Undistributed Middle

last modified: November 12, 2014

A syllogistic fallacy where the middle term (the term that appears in both premises) is not distributed (quantified on the left hand side of the logical expression) in either premise in which it occurs.

Abstractly, the fallacy looks like:

All A are C
All B are C
Therefore, all A are B

In plain English, it means an argument that goes like this:

All communists favor regulation
All democrats favor regulation
Therefore, all democrats are communists

Or:

All dogs are mortal
Socrates is mortal
Therefore, Socrates is a dog

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