It is not a book on general reasoning, nor an introduction to the general study of logic. Our formulations of definitions are guided by Max Radin s comment that the test of a definition is whether it is useful. We therefore acknowledge that our explanations may be considered by some logicians to be simplistic, if not precisely accurate when viewed against the universal cosmos of logic. General logic, as well as law logic, deals with universal and particular propositions. And within this specialty it is possible in deductive logic to reason from a universal to another universal.
All men are animals.
Therefore, all men are mortal. But the law is made up of particulars. In litigation, it is the particular facts found by the fact-finder that is the objective of any trial. In a commercial or business transaction it is the particulars of the conduct, deal, arrangement, agreement, bargain or understanding that create the conflict between the parties. Tight particulars are controlling in the law.