Illicit minor


Illicit minor is a formal fallacy committed in a categorical syllogism that is invalid because its minor term is undistributed in the minor premise but distributed in the conclusion.
This fallacy has the following argument form:
Example:
The minor term here is mammal, which is not distributed in the minor premise "All cats are mammals", because this premise is only defining a property of possibly some mammals However, in the conclusion "All mammals are felines", mammal is distributed. It is shown to be false by any mammal that is not a feline; for example, a dog.
Example: