Illicit minor is aformal fallacy committed in acategorical syllogism that isinvalid because itsminor term isundistributed in theminor premise.
This fallacy has the followingargument form:
Example:
The minor term here ismammal, which is not distributed in theminor premise "All cats are mammals", because this premise is only defining a property ofpossibly some mammals (i.e., that they'recats.) However, in the conclusion "All mammals are felines", mammalis distributed (it is talking aboutall mammals being felines). It is shown to be false by anymammal that is not afeline; for example, adog.
Example:
