In speaking of propositions, not buildings, are premise and premiss variant spellings of the same word, or are they different terms with different usages? The American Heritage Dictionary (3/e) gives premise as the main entry, with premiss as a variant spelling, which I've assumed was British. But one internet source asserts that premiss is preferable because of its etymology; another suggests that premiss is always the correct term in logic.
2 Answers
The OED has premiss only as a variant spelling of premise, and has a note "In Logic still freq. in form premiss, but in general use now usu. in form premise. (I can't find a date on the entry, but it includes a citation from 2000) "
answered Jan 9, 2014 at 18:11
Premiss when taken as a logical postulate upon which a philosophical argument is founded.
Premise when a mere, as yet unfounded, presumption.
So one is a subset of the other. They may be interchangeable but not always.
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7Says who? How do we know if your answer is correct or if you're just some dude on the internet making things up? The other answer, with a score of 5 and accepted by the OP, says you're wrong and cites the OED to prove it. Who can you cite?– Dan BronMar 13, 2017 at 9:54
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Premises are, strictly speaking, purported reasons given to support a conclusion. Whether the premises give airtight support for the conclusion (deductive) or a weaker type of support (inductive), that is the job of logical analysis. Therefore logical postulates are premises in the sense that they are cited as a reason to support a conclusion, but we usually call such premises 'axioms' to distinguish them from non-axiomatic premises. Axioms are statements upon which we base theories and which cannot be derived from other statements (or we choose not to derive them, for economy sake).– johnJun 10, 2019 at 22:13