sorites

American  

[saw-rahy-teez, soh-] / sɔˈraɪ tiz, soʊ- /

noun

Logic.

1. a form of argument having several premises and one conclusion, capable of being resolved into a chain of syllogisms, the conclusion of each of which is a premise of the next.

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sorites British  

/ sɒˈraɪtiːz /

noun

1. logic

   1. a polysyllogism in which the premises are arranged so that intermediate conclusions are omitted, being understood, and only the final conclusion is stated

   2. a paradox of the form

      these few grains of sand do not constitute a heap, and the addition of a single grain never makes what is not yet a heap into a heap: so no matter how many single grains one adds it never becomes a heap

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Other Word Forms

• soritic
  adjective
• soritical
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of sorites

1545–55; < Latin sōrītēs < Greek sōreítēs literally, heaped, piled up, derivative of sōrós a heap

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sorites

In the regressive sorites the proposition which stands first is the only one which appears as a major premiss in the expanded form.

From Deductive Logic by St. George William Joseph Stock

The regressive sorites, it will be observed, consists of the same propositions as the progressive one, only written in reverse order.

From Deductive Logic by St. George William Joseph Stock

Both the instances chosen belong to the progressive order of sorites.

From Deductive Logic by St. George William Joseph Stock

In some of my lectures at Harvard I have spoken of what I call the 'faith-ladder,' as something quite different from the sorites of the logic-books, yet seeming to have an analogous form.

From A Pluralistic Universe Hibbert Lectures at Manchester College on the Present Situation in Philosophy by William James

But the sorites is a vicious sort of argument:—crush it, then, if you can, to prevent its being troublesome; for it will be so, if you do not guard against it.

From The Academic Questions, Treatise De Finibus, and Tusculan Disputations, of M.T. Cicero, With a Sketch of the Greek Philosophers Mentioned by Cicero by Charles Duke Yonge

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