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From: scotp@csc2.essex.ac.uk (Scott P D)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: K. T. Fann's thesis on abduction.
Message-ID: <5141@servax0.essex.ac.uk>
Date: 12 May 91 10:59:26 GMT
References: <8409@uceng.UC.EDU>
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Reply-To: scotp@essex.ac.uk (Scott P D)
Organization: University of Essex, Colchester, UK
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In article <8409@uceng.UC.EDU> skhadye@uceng.UC.EDU (Shankar P. Khadye) writes:
>I am reading Fann's thesis on Peirce's theory of abduction. In it,
>Fann has referred to Barbara, as in - " ... can be reduced to Barbara."
>and so on. Can anybody elaborate on it?

It comes from a medieval mnemonic poem devised to help one remember which
syllogisms are valid.  It is of course in Latin and goes as follows:-

     Barbara celarent darii ferio baralipton
     Celantes dabitis fapesmo frisesomorum;
     Cesare camestres festino baroco; darapti
     Felapton disamis datisi bocardo ferison.

Every word in the poem corresponds to a valid syllogism.  The rules for
interpreting the mnemonic are themselves quite complicated.  A partial
explanation is given in Delong's "A Profile of Mathematical Logic", which
was also my source for the full text of the poem (not all mnemonics are
easy to remember!).

However you probably only want to know which syllogism 'Barbara' denotes.  
It is simply

	   If every Y is Z
	   And every X is Y
	   Then every X is Z


Paul Scott, Dept Computer Science, University of Essex, Colchester, UK.