Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 47 — page 65: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION thetical syllogism. Here is an example of such a one: “If people can guess what is in other people’s minds, then telepathy is real. People can guess what is in other people’s minds, therefore telepathy is real.”’ You will see that the major premiss is an “If... then...” proposition (hypo- thetical or implicative), the minor premiss is a categorical proposition, and so is the conclusion. The simple propo- sition that follows the “‘if’’ is called the antecedent and the one which follows the “‘then”’ is called the consequent. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that this is trivial, for, though the subject matter may not be important, the form of the argument is identical with that used in all branches of scientific re- search. It is the deductive basis of the putting forward of a hypothesis and the testing of it—a method without which science could hardly progress at all. A hypothesis is put forward, then the scientist tests the truth, either of the 64 antecedent or of the conse- quent, and thereby deduces the truth or falsity of the other member. But it is essential to realise that a valid deduction follows only from affirmation of the antecedent or denial of the consequent. Nothing can be deduced by denying the ante- cedent or affirming the con- sequent. Concretely, in the example given we cannot deduce that telepathy is not real by showing that people cannot guess what is in other people’s minds. Even more strangely to the lay mind, we cannot deduce that people can guess what is in other people’s minds by showing that telepathy is real. Though all your instincts may be against this, yet it is logically true. Putting all this into short- hand, merely so that we use less space, we symbolise the syllogisms thus: Po>4: P-4, DP, “4, where > means “implies,” comicloooks.cormn