The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding. The basic of logic is the syllogism, consisting of a major and a minor premise and a conclusion -- thus:
'Major Premise': Sixty men can do a piece of work sixty times as
quickly as one man.
'Minor Premise': One man can dig a posthole in sixty seconds;
therefore --
'Conclusion': Sixty men can dig a posthole in one second.
This may be called the syllogism arithmetical, in which, by combining logic and mathematics, we obtain a double certainty and are twice blessed.
—Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary