An Open Introduction to Logic

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

An Open Introduction to Logic For All X The Lorain County Remix P.D. Magnus University at Albany, State University of New York and Cathal Woods Virginia Wesleyan University and J. Robert Loftis Lorain County Community College Licensed under a Creative Commons license. (Attribution-NonComercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International ) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ This is version 0.1 of An Open Introduction to Logic. It is current as of December 22, 2017. © 2005{2017 by Cathal Woods, P.D. Magnus, and J. Robert Loftis. Some rights reserved. Licensed under a Creative Commons license. (Attribution-NonComercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International ) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ This book incorporates material from An Introduction to Reasoning by Cathal Woods, available at sites.google.com/site/anintroductiontoreasoning/ and For All X by P.D. Magnus (version 1.27 [090604]), available at www.fecundity.com/logic. Introduction to Reasoning © 2007{2014 by Cathal Woods. Some rights reserved. Licensed under a Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ For All X © 2005{2010 by P.D. Magnus. Some rights reserved. Licensed under a Creative Commons license: Attribution ShareAlike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ J. Robert Loftis compiled this edition and wrote original material for it. He takes full responsibility for any mistakes remaining in this version of the text. Typesetting was carried out entirely in LATEX2". The style for typesetting proofs is based on fitch.sty (v0.4) by Peter Selinger, University of Ottawa. \When you come to any passage you don't understand, read it again: if you still don't understand it, read it again: if you fail, even after three readings, very likely your brain is getting a little tired. In that case, put the book away, and take to other occupations, and next day, when you come to it fresh, you will very likely find that it is quite easy." { Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) Symbolic Logic (1896) iii Contents About this Book ix Acknowledgments xi Part I Basic Concepts 1 What Is Logic? 3 1.1 Introduction......................................... 3 1.2 Statement, Argument, Premise, Conclusion ....................... 6 Practice Exercises ..................................... 13 1.3 Arguments and Nonarguments .............................. 15 Practice Exercises ..................................... 18 1.4 Arguments and Explanations ............................... 19 Practice Exercises ..................................... 24 2 The Basics of Evaluating Argument 29 2.1 Two Ways an Argument Can Go Wrong......................... 29 2.2 Valid, Sound ........................................ 30 Practice Exercises ..................................... 35 2.3 Strong, Cogent, Deductive, Inductive........................... 37 Practice Exercises ..................................... 44 3 What is Formal Logic? 49 3.1 Formal as in Concerned with the Form of Things.................... 49 3.2 Formal as in Strictly Following Rules........................... 51 3.3 More Logical Notions for Formal Logic.......................... 53 Practice Exercises ..................................... 57 Part II Categorical Logic 4 Categorical Statements 65 4.1 Quantified Categorical Statements ............................ 65 Practice Exercises ..................................... 66 4.2 Quantity, Quality, Distribution, and Venn Diagrams .................. 68 iv Practice Exercises ..................................... 73 4.3 Transforming English into Logically Structured English ................ 75 Practice Exercises ..................................... 80 4.4 Conversion, Obversion, and Contraposition ....................... 83 Practice Exercises ..................................... 93 4.5 The Traditional Square of Opposition .......................... 96 Practice Exercises .....................................101 4.6 Existential Import and the Modern Square of Opposition . 105 Practice Exercises .....................................108 5 Categorical Syllogisms 113 5.1 Standard Form, Mood, and Figure ............................113 Practice Exercises .....................................116 5.2 Testing Validity.......................................119 Practice Exercises .....................................129 5.3 Existential Import and Conditionally Valid Forms ...................132 Practice Exercises .....................................137 5.4 Rules and Fallacies.....................................139 Practice Exercises .....................................146 Part III Sentential Logic 6 Sentential Logic 151 6.1 Sentence Letters ......................................151 6.2 Sentential Connectives...................................153 6.3 More Complicated Translations..............................161 6.4 Recursive Syntax for SL..................................167 Practice Exercises .....................................171 7 Truth Tables 177 7.1 Basic Concepts.......................................177 7.2 Complete Truth Tables...................................178 Practice Exercises .....................................182 7.3 Using Truth Tables.....................................184 Practice Exercises .....................................187 7.4 Partial Truth Tables....................................190 Practice Exercises .....................................193 7.5 Expressive Completeness..................................196 Practice Exercises .....................................197 8 Proofs in Sentential Logic 199 8.1 Substitution Instances and Proofs.............................199 Practice Exercises .....................................203 8.2 Basic Rules for Sentential Logic..............................207 Practice Exercises .....................................213 8.3 Conditional Proof......................................220 v Practice Exercises .....................................225 8.4 Indirect Proof........................................227 Practice Exercises .....................................229 8.5 Tautologies and Equivalences ...............................232 Practice Exercises .....................................234 8.6 Derived Rules........................................235 Practice Exercises .....................................238 8.7 Rules of Replacement ...................................239 Practice Exercises .....................................241 8.8 Proof Strategy .......................................241 Practice Exercises .....................................242 8.9 Soundness and completeness................................242 Practice Exercises .....................................246 Part IV Quantificational Logic 9 Quantified Logic 251 9.1 From Sentences to Predicates...............................251 9.2 Building Blocks of Quantified Logic............................253 Practice Exercises .....................................256 9.3 Quantifiers .........................................257 9.4 Translating to Quantified Logic..............................261 Practice Exercises .....................................265 9.5 Recursive Syntax for QL..................................267 Practice Exercises .....................................270 9.6 Tricky Translations.....................................270 Practice Exercises .....................................275 9.7 Identity ...........................................278 Practice Exercises .....................................282 10 Semantics for Quantified Logic 285 10.1 Creating models in Quantified Logic ...........................285 Practice Exercises .....................................289 10.2 Working with Models ...................................291 Practice Exercises .....................................295 11 Proofs in Quantified Logic 297 11.1 Rules for Quantifiers....................................297 Practice Exercises .....................................301 11.2 Rules for Identity......................................305 Practice Exercises .....................................306 A Other Symbolic Notation 309 B Bibliography 313 vi C Glossary 317 D Quick Reference 327 vii viii About this Book This book was created by combining two previous books on logic and critical thinking, both made available under a Creative Commons license, and then adding some material so that the coverage matched that of commonly used logic textbooks. P.D. Magnus' For All X(2008) formed the basis of PartB: Formal Logic. I began using For All X in my own logic classes in 2009, but I quickly realized I needed to make changes to make it appropriate for the community college students I was teaching. In 2010 I began developing For All X : The Lorain County Remix and using it in my classes. The main change I made was to separate the discussions of sentential and quantificational logic and to add exercises. It is this remixed version that became the basis for PartB: Formal Logic complete version of this text. Similarly, Part ??: Critical Thinking grew out of Cathal Woods' Introduction to Reasoning. In the Spring of 2011, I began to use an early version of this text (Woods and Roche 2011) in my critical thinking courses. I kept up with the updates and changes to the text until the release of Woods 2014, all the while gradually merging the material with the work in For All X. After that point, my version forks from Woods's. On May 20, 2016, I posted the combined textbook to Github and all subsequent changes have been tracked there: https://github.com/rob-helpy-chalk/openintroduction
Recommended publications
  • Φ-Features in Animal Cognition
    φ-Features in Animal Cognition Chris Golston This paper argues that the core φ-features behind grammatical person, number, and gender are widely used in animal cognition and are in no way limited to humans or to communication. Based on this, it is hypothesized (i) that the semantics behind φ-features were fixed long before primates evolved, (ii) that most go back as far as far as vertebrates, and (iii) that some are shared with insects and plants. Keywords: animal cognition; gender; number; person 1. Introduction Bickerton claims that language is ill understood as a communication system: [F]or most of us, language seems primarily, or even exclusively, to be a means of communication. But it is not even primarily a means of communication. Rather, it is a system of representation, a means for sorting and manipulating the plethora of information that deluges us throughout our waking life. (Bickerton 1990: 5) As Berwick & Chomsky (2016: 102) put it recently “language is fundamentally a system of thought”. Since much of our system of representation seems to be shared with other animals, it has been argued that we should “search for the ancestry of language not in prior systems of animal communication, but in prior representational systems” (Bickerton 1990: 23). In support of this, I provide evidence that all the major φ-features are shared with primates, most with vertebrates, and some with plants; and that there are no φ-features whose semantics are unique to humans. Specifically human categories, including all things that vary across human cultures, seem to I’d like to thank Steve Adisasmito-Smith, Charles Ettner, Sean Fulop, Steven Moran, Nadine Müller, three anonymous reviewers for EvoLang, two anonymous reviewers for Biolinguistics and Kleanthes Grohmann for help in identifying weakness in earlier drafts, as well as audiences at California State University Fresno, Marburg Universität, and Universitetet i Tromsø for helpful discussion.
    [Show full text]
  • Ecotourism As a Means of Encouraging Ecological Recovery in the Flinders Ranges, South Australia
    ECOTOURISM AS A MEANS OF ENCOURAGING ECOLOGICAL RECOVERY IN THE FLINDERS RANGES, SOUTH AUSTRALIA By Emily Moskwa A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Discipline of Geographical and Environmental Studies School of Social Sciences Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences The University of Adelaide May 2008 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures………………………………………………………………………………….…….....v List of Tables…………………………………………………………………………………….….....vi Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………….……viii Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………………….………ix Declaration……………………………………………………………………………………….……..x Section I: Preliminaries 1.0 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................. 2 1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Conceptual Basis for Thesis ...................................................................................... 2 1.3 Research Questions ................................................................................................... 3 1.4 Specific Objectives .................................................................................................... 5 1.5 Justifications for Research ........................................................................................ 6 1.6 Structure of the Thesis .............................................................................................. 8 1.7 Conclusion ................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Indiscernible Logic: Using the Logical Fallacies of the Illicit Major Term and the Illicit Minor Term As Litigation Tools
    WLR_47-1_RICE (FINAL FORMAT) 10/28/2010 3:35:39 PM INDISCERNIBLE LOGIC: USING THE LOGICAL FALLACIES OF THE ILLICIT MAJOR TERM AND THE ILLICIT MINOR TERM AS LITIGATION TOOLS ∗ STEPHEN M. RICE I. INTRODUCTION Baseball, like litigation, is at once elegant in its simplicity and infinite in its complexities and variations. As a result of its complexities, baseball, like litigation, is subject to an infinite number of potential outcomes. Both baseball and litigation are complex systems, managed by specialized sets of rules. However, the results of baseball games, like the results of litigation, turn on a series of indiscernible, seemingly invisible, rules. These indiscernible rules are essential to success in baseball, in the same way the rules of philosophic logic are essential to success in litigation. This article will evaluate one of the philosophical rules of logic;1 demonstrate how it is easily violated without notice, resulting in a logical fallacy known as the Fallacy of the Illicit Major or Minor Term,2 chronicle how courts have identified this logical fallacy and used it to evaluate legal arguments;3 and describe how essential this rule and the fallacy that follows its breach is to essential effective advocacy. However, because many lawyers are unfamiliar with philosophical logic, or why it is important, this article begins with a story about a familiar subject that is, in many ways, like the rules of philosophic logic: the game of baseball. ∗ Stephen M. Rice is an Assistant Professor of Law, Liberty University School of Law. I appreciate the efforts of my research assistant, Ms.
    [Show full text]
  • Downloaded by [New York University] at 06:54 14 August 2016 Classic Case Studies in Psychology
    Downloaded by [New York University] at 06:54 14 August 2016 Classic Case Studies in Psychology The human mind is both extraordinary and compelling. But this is more than a collection of case studies; it is a selection of stories that illustrate some of the most extreme forms of human behaviour. From the leader who convinced his followers to kill themselves to the man who lost his memory; from the boy who was brought up as a girl to the woman with several personalities, Geoff Rolls illustrates some of the most fundamental tenets of psychology. Each case study has provided invaluable insights for scholars and researchers, and amazed the public at large. Several have been the inspiration for works of fiction, for example the story of Kim Peek, the real Rain Man. This new edition features three new case studies, including the story of Charles Decker who was tried for the attempted murder of two people but acquitted on the basis of a neurological condition, and Dorothy Martin, whose persisting belief in an impending alien invasion is an illuminating example of cognitive dissonance. In addition, each case study is contextualized with more typical behaviour, while the latest thinking in each sub-field is also discussed. Classic Case Studies in Psychology is accessibly written and requires no prior knowledge of psychology, but simply an interest in the human condition. It is a book that will amaze, sometimes disturb, but above all enlighten its readers. Downloaded by [New York University] at 06:54 14 August 2016 Geoff Rolls is Head of Psychology at Peter Symonds College in Winchester and formerly a Research Fellow at Southampton University, UK.
    [Show full text]
  • Existential Universal Statement Examples
    Existential Universal Statement Examples Kenotic and evident Hilliard often apparelled some estafette passionately or underestimates light-heartedly. Is Whittaker bamboo or apsidal after emasculatory Lindsay retrospects so affectedly? Fox coinciding raffishly as lacteous Matt lark her firstling perplexes diplomatically. Finally we want to agree with constants, brentano and the same way can encode simple example, or allow for existential universal statement in formal model Some cats are enabled to generalize the existential universal statement to let us! The cases holds true if a host of opposing or two or equal and contrast could use an example of these definitions are. Questions about this fallacy? In any name it! This example in universal existential statement here are asked to. The following are referring to find it is automatically true, we start a mouse a new term is not. It overseas also easy to see that there be many repetitions of stock same value these different points in a plane. The comparison made her breath catch. Here are still statements from two existential universal statement examples illustrate these examples are positive, there was that are cats like it must be wise to this means we replaceboth occurrences. If authorities exercise, or they are independent of some theory, and by duality the same result holds for existential quantification. Not all real numbers are positive. Please help us to share our service with your friends. Universal quantifier Existential quantifier Negation and quantifiers Restricting. What oversight you person to show can prove anything the statement is false? What happens to be evaluated to indicate unique existence unless we do.
    [Show full text]
  • Essence and Necessity, and the Aristotelian Modal Syllogistic: a Historical and Analytical Study Daniel James Vecchio Marquette University
    Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Dissertations (2009 -) Dissertations, Theses, and Professional Projects Essence and Necessity, and the Aristotelian Modal Syllogistic: A Historical and Analytical Study Daniel James Vecchio Marquette University Recommended Citation Vecchio, Daniel James, "Essence and Necessity, and the Aristotelian Modal Syllogistic: A Historical and Analytical Study" (2016). Dissertations (2009 -). 686. http://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu/686 ESSENCE AND NECESSITY, AND THE ARISTOTELIAN MODAL SYLLOGISTIC: A HISTORICAL AND ANALYTICAL STUDY by Daniel James Vecchio, B.A., M.A. A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School, Marquette University, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Milwaukee, Wisconsin December 2016 ABSTRACT ESSENCE AND NECESSITY, AND THE ARISTOTELIAN MODAL SYLLOGISTIC: A HISTORICAL AND ANALYTICAL STUDY Daniel James Vecchio, B.A., M.A. Marquette University, 2016 The following is a critical and historical account of Aristotelian Essentialism informed by recent work on Aristotle’s modal syllogistic. The semantics of the modal syllogistic are interpreted in a way that is motivated by Aristotle, and also make his validity claims in the Prior Analytics consistent to a higher degree than previously developed interpretative models. In Chapter One, ancient and contemporary objections to the Aristotelian modal syllogistic are discussed. A resolution to apparent inconsistencies in Aristotle’s modal syllogistic is proposed and developed out of recent work by Patterson, Rini, and Malink. In particular, I argue that the semantics of negation is distinct in modal context from those of assertoric negative claims. Given my interpretive model of Aristotle’s semantics, in Chapter Two, I provide proofs for each of the mixed apodictic syllogisms, and propose a method of using Venn Diagrams to visualize the validity claims Aristotle makes in the Prior Analytics.
    [Show full text]
  • Leading Logical Fallacies in Legal Argument – Part 1 Gerald Lebovits
    University of Ottawa Faculty of Law (Civil Law Section) From the SelectedWorks of Hon. Gerald Lebovits July, 2016 Say It Ain’t So: Leading Logical Fallacies in Legal Argument – Part 1 Gerald Lebovits Available at: https://works.bepress.com/gerald_lebovits/297/ JULY/AUGUST 2016 VOL. 88 | NO. 6 JournalNEW YORK STATE BAR ASSOCIATION Highlights from Today’s Game: Also in this Issue Exclusive Use and Domestic Trademark Coverage on the Offensive Violence Health Care Proxies By Christopher Psihoules and Jennette Wiser Litigation Strategy and Dispute Resolution What’s in a Name? That Which We Call Surrogate’s Court UBE-Shopping and Portability THE LEGAL WRITER BY GERALD LEBOVITS Say It Ain’t So: Leading Logical Fallacies in Legal Argument – Part 1 o argue effectively, whether oral- fact.3 Then a final conclusion is drawn able doubt. The jury has reasonable ly or in writing, lawyers must applying the asserted fact to the gen- doubt. Therefore, the jury hesitated.”8 Tunderstand logic and how logic eral rule.4 For the syllogism to be valid, The fallacy: Just because the jury had can be manipulated through fallacious the premises must be true, and the a reasonable doubt, the jury must’ve reasoning. A logical fallacy is an inval- conclusion must follow logically. For hesitated. The jury could’ve been id way to reason. Understanding falla- example: “All men are mortal. Bob is a entirely convinced and reached a con- cies will “furnish us with a means by man. Therefore, Bob is mortal.” clusion without hesitation. which the logic of practical argumen- Arguments might not be valid, tation can be tested.”1 Testing your though, even if their premises and con- argument against the general types of clusions are true.
    [Show full text]
  • MATH 9: ALGEBRA: FALLACIES, INDUCTION 1. Quantifier Recap First, a Review of Quantifiers Introduced Last Week. Recall That
    MATH 9: ALGEBRA: FALLACIES, INDUCTION October 4, 2020 1. Quantifier Recap First, a review of quantifiers introduced last week. Recall that 9 is called the existential quantifier 8 is called the universal quantifier. We write the statement 8x(P (x)) to mean for all values of x, P (x) is true, and 9x(P (x)) to mean there is some value of x such that P (x) is true. Here P (x) is a predicate, as defined last week. Generalized De Morgan's Laws: :8x(P (x)) $ 9x(:P (x)) :9x(P (x)) $ 8x(:P (x)) Note that multiple quantifiers can be used in a statement. If we have a multivariable predicate like P (x; y), it is possible to write 9x9y(P (x; y)), which is identical to a nested statement, 9x(9y(P (x; y))). If it helps to understand this, you can realize that the statement 9y(P (x; y)) is a logical predicate in variable x. Note that, in general, the order of the quantifiers does matter. To negate a statement with multiple predicates, you can do as follows: :8x(9y(P (x; y))) = 9x(:9y(P (x; y))) = 9x(8y(:P (x; y))): 2. Negations :(A =) B) $ A ^ :B :(A $ B) = (:A $ B) = (A $ :B) = (A ⊕ B) Here I am using = to indicate logical equivalence, just because it is a little less ambiguous when the statements themselves contain the $ sign; ultimately, the meaning is the same. The ⊕ symbol is the xor logical relation, which means that exactly one of A, B is true, but not both.
    [Show full text]
  • What Artificial Neural Networks Can Learn from Animal Brains
    bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/582643; this version posted March 20, 2019. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY 4.0 International license. ACRITIQUE OF PURE LEARNING:WHAT ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS CAN LEARN FROM ANIMAL BRAINS Anthony M. Zador Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724 [email protected] March 19, 2019 ABSTRACT Over the last decade, artificial neural networks (ANNs), have undergone a revolution, catalyzed in large part by better tools for supervised learning. However, training such networks requires enormous data sets of labeled examples, whereas young animals (including humans) typically learn with few or no labeled examples. This stark contrast with biological learning has led many in the ANN community posit that instead of supervised paradigms, animals must rely instead primarily on unsupervised learning, leading the search for better unsupervised algorithms. Here we argue that much of an animal’s behavioral repertoire is not the result of clever learning algorithms—supervised or unsupervised—but arises instead from behavior programs already present at birth. These programs arise through evolution, are encoded in the genome, and emerge as a consequence of wiring up the brain. Specifically, animals are born with highly structured brain connectivity, which enables them learn very rapidly. Recognizing the importance of the highly structured connectivity suggests a path toward building ANNs capable of rapid learning. Introduction Not long after the invention of computers in the 1940s, expectations were high.
    [Show full text]
  • Stephen M. Rice, Leveraging Logical Form in Legal Argument
    OCULREV Winter 2015 551-96 Rice 3-14 (Do Not Delete) 3/14/2016 7:38 PM OKLAHOMA CITY UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW VOLUME 40 WINTER 2015 NUMBER 3 ARTICLE LEVERAGING LOGICAL FORM IN LEGAL ARGUMENT: THE INHERENT AMBIGUITY IN LOGICAL DISJUNCTION AND ITS IMPLICATION IN LEGAL ARGUMENT Stephen M. Rice* I. INTRODUCTION: LOGIC’S QUIET, PERVASIVE ROLE IN ADVOCACY Trial lawyers love to design carefully constructed arguments. However, they do not always consider some of the most important details of persuasive advocacy—the logical structure of their arguments.1 While lawyers are well aware of their obligations to master and marshal the law and the facts in support of a client’s claim, they are generally not so intentional about mastering and marshaling the internal logic of the pleadings they design, briefs they write, or contracts and statutes they read or draft. In fact, many lawyers are surprised to learn that—in addition to the rules of law—there are rules of logic that ensure and test the integrity of legal argument.2 It is important to note that these rules of * Professor of Law, Liberty University School of Law. 1. See Gary L. Sasso, Appellate Oral Argument, LITIG., Summer 1994, at 27, 27, 31 (illustrating the importance of a carefully constructed argument). 2. See generally Stephen M. Rice, Conspicuous Logic: Using the Logical Fallacy of Affirming the Consequent as a Litigation Tool, 14 BARRY L. REV. 1 (2010) [hereinafter Rice, Conspicuous Logic]; Stephen M. Rice, Conventional Logic: Using the Logical 551 OCULREV Winter 2015 551-96 Rice 3-14 (Do Not Delete) 3/14/2016 7:38 PM 552 Oklahoma City University Law Review [Vol.
    [Show full text]
  • Critical Thinking
    Critical Thinking Mark Storey Bellevue College Copyright (c) 2013 Mark Storey Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is found at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.txt. 1 Contents Part 1 Chapter 1: Thinking Critically about the Logic of Arguments .. 3 Chapter 2: Deduction and Induction ………… ………………. 10 Chapter 3: Evaluating Deductive Arguments ……………...…. 16 Chapter 4: Evaluating Inductive Arguments …………..……… 24 Chapter 5: Deductive Soundness and Inductive Cogency ….…. 29 Chapter 6: The Counterexample Method ……………………... 33 Part 2 Chapter 7: Fallacies ………………….………….……………. 43 Chapter 8: Arguments from Analogy ………………………… 75 Part 3 Chapter 9: Categorical Patterns….…….………….…………… 86 Chapter 10: Propositional Patterns……..….…………...……… 116 Part 4 Chapter 11: Causal Arguments....……..………….………....…. 143 Chapter 12: Hypotheses.….………………………………….… 159 Chapter 13: Definitions and Analyses...…………………...…... 179 Chapter 14: Probability………………………………….………199 2 Chapter 1: Thinking Critically about the Logic of Arguments Logic and critical thinking together make up the systematic study of reasoning, and reasoning is what we do when we draw a conclusion on the basis of other claims. In other words, reasoning is used when you infer one claim on the basis of another. For example, if you see a great deal of snow falling from the sky outside your bedroom window one morning, you can reasonably conclude that it’s probably cold outside. Or, if you see a man smiling broadly, you can reasonably conclude that he is at least somewhat happy.
    [Show full text]
  • Denying the Antecedent - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
    Denying the antecedent - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Help us provide free content to the world by • LearnLog more in /about create using Wikipediaaccount for research donating today ! • Article Discussion EditDenying this page History the antecedent From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Denying the antecedent is a formal fallacy, committed by reasoning in the form: If P , then Q . Navigation Not P . ● Main Page Therefore, not Q . ● Contents Arguments of this form are invalid (except in the rare cases where such an argument also ● Featured content instantiates some other, valid, form). Informally, this means that arguments of this form do ● Current events ● Random article not give good reason to establish their conclusions, even if their premises are true. Interaction The name denying the ● About Wikipedia antecedent derives from the premise "not P ", which denies the 9, 2008 ● Community portal "if" clause of the conditional premise.Lehman, v. on June ● Recent changes Carver One way into demonstrate archivedthe invalidity of this argument form is with a counterexample with ● Contact Wikipedia Cited true premises06-35176 but an obviously false conclusion. For example: ● Donate to No. If Queen Elizabeth is an American citizen, then she is a human being. Wikipedia ● Help Queen Elizabeth is not an American citizen. Therefore, Queen Elizabeth is not a human being. Search That argument is obviously bad, but arguments of the same form can sometimes seem superficially convincing, as in the following example imagined by Alan Turing in the article "Computing Machinery and Intelligence": “ If each man had a definite set of rules of conduct by which he regulated his life he would be no better than a machine.
    [Show full text]