The program, widgets, or Notes, should be accompanied by a suitable textbook, such as:
M.Bergmann, J.Moor, J.Nelson, The Logic Book
A.Hausman, H.Kahane, P.Tidman, Logic and Philosophy
W.Hodges, Logic
C.Howson, Logic with Trees
R.C.Jeffrey, Formal Logic: Its Scope and Limits
H.Leblanc and W.Wisdom, Deductive Logic
B.Mates, Elementary Logic
M.D.Resnick, Elementary Logic
6/1/09 need to check
2013
You may have derivations of your own that you wish to try. Just type, paste, or drag and drop, them into the panel, select your derivation, and click 'Start from selection'. [Often copy-and-paste won't work directly from a Web Page; however, usually drag-and-drop will work!]
You will need to use the correct logical symbols. Here they are
F ∴ F & G ∼ & ∨ ⊃ ≡ ∀ ∃ ∴ (or use the palette to produce them)
4/24/06
You now have the tools to appraise arguments to the level of detail offered by predicate logic.
Let us run through how these might be used with a long and difficult example.
Consider the argument
To understand how the various restrictions on the quantificational rules work to exclude certain kinds of invalid inferences
Bergmann[2004] The Logic Book Section 10.1
If a derivation contains a line of the form
n (∀<variable>)<scope> <any justification>
then a line of the form
<<scope>[<constant>/<variable>]> 'n ∀E'
The semantics of relations proceeds in much the way one would expect-- the new item that has to be taken account of is the order of the terms (because, for example, Tab is not at all the same thing as Tba -- Arthur being taller than Beryl is not the same as Beryl being taller than Arthur).
Let us start with an Interpretation
Interpretation 1
Universe= {a,b}
F={a}
11/30/06
[The core of this is from Leblanc and Wisdom [1972] p.117 and f.]