propositional

Tutorial 4: Arguments and searching for a counter example

Logical System

8/8/08 10Software

Skills to be acquired in this tutorial:

To learn how to symbolize arguments, and how to judge whether they might be invalid using truth-table methods.

Why this is useful:

We wish to appraise arguments, to do this we have to symbolize them first. Judging the invalidity of arguments by truth-table methods is not particularly important, but it does help to develop skills involving truth and lists of formulas.

Reading

Bergmann[2004] The Logic Book Section 3.5.

Review

Logical System

There is the idea of setting up a code or convention or dictionary between atomic sentences and capital letters.

There are compound sentences, each of which has a main connective which connects its components.

There are five sentential logical connectives:

'∼' which translates back to 'it is not the case that...'

'&' which translates back to '... and ...'

'∨' which translates back to '... or ...'

'⊃' which translates back to 'if... then ...'

'≡' which translates back to '... if and only if ...'

Review

Logical System

There is the idea of setting up a code or convention or dictionary between atomic propositions and capital letters.

There are compound propositions, each of which has a main connective which connects its components.

There are five propositional logical connectives:

'∼' which translates back to 'it is not the case that...'

'∧' which translates back to '... and ...'

'∨' which translates back to '... or ...'

'⊃' which translates back to 'if... then ...'

'≡' which translates back to '... if and only if ...'