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What are the differences between a Statement and a Premise?

I wonder if they are same or not? Any counterexample where a statement is not a premise?

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    A premise is a statement used in an argument. A statement is ... a statement. Commented Oct 15, 2020 at 7:03
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    A counterexample where a statement is not a premise: "My name is Mauro". Commented Oct 15, 2020 at 7:03
  • @MauroALLEGRANZA what about a proposition? Commented Oct 15, 2020 at 7:09
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    What is a proposition ? A statement. Commented Oct 15, 2020 at 7:13
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    Generally a statement is a deemed a way of communication that doesn't have to be verbal. For example, signs can communicate. This communication doesn't HAVE TO Express something true or false. Propositions are CONCEPTS that are EXPRESSED in some language that indicate meaningful claims are true or false. So me pointing a gun at you makes a statement. I do not make a proposition. I am communicating something to you but you not worry about the truth or falsity. Propositions are NOT sentences. Propositions are communicated with sentences. The idea is for propositions are not to be subjective.
    – Logikal
    Commented Oct 15, 2020 at 14:56

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Short Answer

A statement might be held to mean utterance, sentence, proposition, message, or speech. A premise is a statement that is used as a basis to draw an inference. Thus, a premise is a type of statement selected with the intention of reasoning to a conclusion.

Long Answer

In philosophical writing you will see "statement" used in several different ways:

  • A statement might sometimes be held equivalent to an utterance, where the emphasis on not on the semantics or syntax but the physical encoding. Utterances might be something like "Yikes, save me!" uttered in surprise as an exclamation where the philosopher is emphasizing the non-cognitive aspects like the emotion of astonishment or the sound of the message moving through the medium of air.
  • In the philosophy of language, a statement might be held the same as a linguistic sentence where the emphasis is on the syntax and closely related to a sentence in linguistics. Notice Noam Chomsky's example of a statement that is puzzling but somewhat comprehensible.
  • It can be used as a truth-bearing compositional unit of meaning. In this sense, it is a synonym for proposition. Here the emphasis on semantics and the abstracted part of a communication. Propositions are important units in truth-conditional semantics.
  • Sometimes, a statement needn't be expressed in a language, natural or otherwise at all. In the philosophy of law in the US, action can be taken as a statement or speech, such as in symbolic speech. This is closely related to implicature where there is a difference between the literal meaning and the pragmatic meaning. Often, the word message is used synonymously in this sense.

And premise? Generally just a statement that is used in reasoning to get to a conclusion.

P1. Socrates is in the kitchen.
P2. The kitchen is in the house.
C. Socrates is in the house.

In this example, the conclusion is not a premise, but is a statement.

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