Syllogism: A tool of logic?

syllogism/sil-uh-jiz-uh m/noun(technical) a way of arguing in which two statements are used to prove that a third statement is true

I first came across the idea while reading Freakonomics. Renowned author Steven Levitt in his international bestseller Freakonomics uses syllogism to explain the decreased crime rates in the US in the 90s.

Syllogism struck a chord with me.

Why do coconuts have water in them?

At the beach drinking coconut water, my sister asks

"Do you know why coconuts have water in them?"

"Coconut trees grow in the deserts. They need to conserve water."

"No. The coconut is designed to float in water and traverse many miles in the sea to germinate on another coast. Either way, they don't grow in deserts."

"No? Coconut trees grow where there is a lot of sand. Deserts have a lot of sand. Therefore coconut tree grows in deserts."

I hastened to explain.

This kind of argument is used in Mathematics as well.

"If line p is parallel to line q and line q to line r, then we can say that line p is parallel to line r"

The Ram-Chagol Argument

Here, my father quips

"This is what they call Ram-Chagol [Mountain Goat] argument."

"Ram Chagol has beard."

"Rabindranath Tagore had beard."

"Therefore Rabindranath Tagore is a Ram Chagol."

Whether Rabindranath Tagore was a Ram Chagol or not (no offence intended), I will leave it to the reader to ruminate, digest and decide.