ABSTRACT
Ever since Aristotle, syllogism has occupied a central place in logic and cast a fateful shadow upon the power of reason. Recognized to be the great conveyor of rationality, allowing reason to reach conclusions of unparalleled universality and necessity, syllogism has equally been acknowledged to be beset by limits. These limits narrowly circumscribe the reach of reason, if rational knowledge is based upon the deductive inference by which syllogism mediates judgments by one another.
