To say that this is proved by the past experience of the race, is what logicians call a petitio principii-it is assuming the whole point at issue.
"The Law and the Word"
Thomas Troward
Yet the acknowledgment so explicitly made, has not prevented one set of writers from continuing to represent the syllogism as the correct analysis of what the mind actually performs in discovering and proving the larger half of the truths, whether of science or of daily life, which we believe; while those who have avoided this inconsistency, and followed out the general theorem respecting the logical value of the syllogism to its legitimate corollary, have been led to impute uselessness and frivolity to the syllogistic theory itself, on the ground of the petitio principii which they allege to be inherent in every syllogism.
"A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive (Vol. 1 of 2)"
John Stuart Mill
He saw the petitio principii which is inherent in every syllogism, if we consider the major to be itself the evidence by which the conclusion is proved, instead of being, what in fact it is, an assertion of the existence of evidence sufficient to prove any conclusion of a given description.
"A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive (Vol. 1 of 2)"
John Stuart Mill