Chapter 72 <Can you make it promise you>

In "The True Story of Ah Q", it is said that Ah Q once went to the vegetable garden of Jingxiu nunnery to steal radishes, but was discovered by an old nun.At first, Ah Q refused to admit it, but then the old nun pointed to his pocket and said: Isn't it? Ah Q argued: Is this yours?Can you make it promise you? In Ah Q's argument, he applied an elliptical reasoning. He wanted to prove that the stolen carrots did not belong to the old nun.Reverting this omission reasoning back to its full form is: Only what you can make it promise is yours; This garden turnip is not what you can call it to promise;

So, the radishes in this vegetable garden are not yours. This is a necessary conditional hypothetical reasoning from negating the antecedent to negating the consequent.Although the form of reasoning is correct, the major premise that Ah Q deliberately omitted is yours only if you can make it agree, which is obviously very absurd.It can be seen that Ah Q's reasoning is a pitiful sophistry.