In the eighth section Socrates argues: Since humans (and animals) seek what is good for them, they must have an idea of The Good
. But they do this from the moment of birth. Therefore, they have the idea at birth. This is an example of A) deductive reasoning.
B) inductive reasoning.
C) syllogistic reasoning.
D) translucent reasoning.
Deductive reasoning are those in which the conclusion necessarily follows from the premises. Validity is related to the structure or order of the premises, so that it would not be possible to start from true premises and obtain a false conclusion. Thus we say that this form of reasoning preserves the truth.
We can see that the paragraph shown in the above question is an example of deductive reasoning, because Socrates concluded that human beings "have the idea at birth" through a premise that states that men seek what is good for them, because they must have an idea of the good, but they do it from the moment of birth.
