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, sɒˈrɪtɪkəl /

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

Etymology

Origin of sorites

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

Example Sentences

The whole must needs follow by a sorites or induction.

From The Anatomy of Melancholy by Burton, Robert

The syllogisms which compose a regular sorites, whether progressive or regressive, will always be in the first figure.

From Deductive Logic by Stock, St. George William Joseph

Were there no limit to such sorites, proof would always involve a regressus ad infinitum, for which life is too short; but, in fact, prosyllogisms soon fail us.

From Logic Deductive and Inductive by Read, Carveth

If you are not a man of taste, how can you ever hope to be of use in the world?'—a sorites, says my brother, which must, he thinks, be somewhere defective.

From The Life of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, Bart., K.C.S.I. A Judge of the High Court of Justice by Stephen, Leslie, Sir

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 James, William