Roehamster comments on The Santa deception: how did it affect you? - Less Wrong
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Clearly in the presence of experts, I'm afraid to suggest that step four in your logic ought to read: "Therefore our parents are Santa". Am I missing something?
It's all right; the classical syllogisms only take two premises to one conclusion, whereas here I want to take three premises to one conclusion. So classically, this requires two steps; the intermediate step can either be that the person who brings us presents is real or that our parents are Santa. On the other hand, it is still a valid syllogism all at once, a generalisation of the classical ones.