In his theory of inference, he distinguished between inference for oneself and inference for the other and laid down three criteria of a valid middle term (hetu that it should "cover" the minor premise (paksha), be present in the similar instances (sapaksha), and be absent in dissimilar instances (vipaksha).
2. This becomes clear in the closing lines of chapter 16: "Hence in these cases the middle term and what it is explanatory of must be equal and must convert.
Social science helps to make decisions in the short and middle term, but its suitability to interpret long term developments is questionable.
In his theory of inference he distinguished between inference for oneself and inference for the other and laid down three criteria of a valid middle term (hetu i.e., that it should "cover" the minor premise (pakṣa), be present in the similar instances (sapakṣa), and be absent in dissimilar instances (vipakṣa).
The conclusion, he asserts, is the terminus of the act of intellectual cognition, but the middle term is what makes it possible, just as light makes bodily seeing possible (QLIII2S 5, 18 20).
It meets the requirements of formal logic, since it supplies the middle term of the syllogism, and hence is demonstrative.
Thomas Aquinas argued that the highest sort of demonstration had as its middle term the real definition of the subject term (Comm. on PA II 1.9, 7, 19).
Albert the Great, with his more Aristotelian metaphysics, had argued that a demonstration of the highest sort would have the definition of the attribute as its middle term.
If a family found that they couldn't make payments, say, in the middle of the term, it was often difficult to transfer a child to a new school.
