Which fallacy occurs when the premises are negative but the conclusion is affirmative?

• A. No conclusion follows from two negative premises
• B. Fallacy of Illicit Major
• C. Fallacy of Illicit Minor
• D. Fallacy of Drawing an Affirmative Conclusion from a Negative Premise

Answer: (D)

Affirmative conclusions cannot be drawn from a negative premise in standard categorical syllogisms. The negative premise constrains the relationship between the classes, so any valid inference should keep that negative relation or result in a negative conclusion about the subject, not assert that the subject is related affirmatively to the predicate.

A classic way this fallacy appears is when you have a chain like All S are M and No M are P, and someone infers All S are P. That would be drawing an affirmative conclusion about S from a negative link between M and P, which the premises do not support. Since every S is M, and no M is P, nothing in S can be P; the correct, warranted conclusion would be No S are P (a negative conclusion), not All S are P. This mismatch—claiming an affirmative relation that the premises actually block—is precisely the fallacy in question.