Tag Archives: symbolic logic

A Logical Declaration

Classical Education, Logic, Why learn logic?, ,

Have you ever read through the Declaration of Independence and thought to yourself, “What a clear presentation of reasoning. Why can’t our leaders today argue in such a straightforward way?” If you read the Declaration carefully, you can discern this pattern of reasoning:

If P then Q
P
Therefore Q.

This pattern of reasoning is called modus ponens, and the three parts of the Declaration can be understood in this way.

     If  any form of government becomes destructive of our unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, then it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government.

     The government of the king of Great Britain has shown itself to be destructive of these rights (as shown in a long list of grievances).

Therefore, these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent States.

One wishes that such clear reasoning would once again rule in the hearts and minds of our nation, its people and its rulers.

 

Rules for Proofs

Intermediate Logic, ,

Two types of rules can be used to justify steps in formal proofs: rules of inference and rules of replacement. In order to use these properly, you should understand the differences between them.

The main difference is that rules of inference are forms of valid arguments (that’s why they have a therefore ∴  symbol), but rules of replacement are forms of equivalent propositions (which is why they have the equivalence sign  ≡  between the two parts).  This fundamental distinction is the cause of all other differences in how they are applied in proofs. Continue reading Rules for Proofs →

Rules for Guessing

Intermediate Logic,

Shorter truth tables can help us find if an argument is valid, or a set of propositions are consistent, or if two propositions are equivalent. However, when completing a shorter truth table, we must sometimes guess a truth value for a variable. This occurs when there are no “forced” truth values — that is, when there exists more than one way to complete the current truth value for every remaining proposition.

Here are two rules to keep in mind when you must guess a truth value:

  1. If guessing allows you to complete the shorter truth table without contradiction, then stop; your question is answered. Either you have shown the argument is invalid, or the given propositions are consistent, or the two propositions are not equivalent.
  2. If the guess leads to an unavoidable contradiction, then you must guess the opposite truth value for that variable and continue, because the contradiction just might be showing that your guess was wrong.

Take a look at this post for a flowchart for guessing with validity.

 

Sayers’ Helpful Summary of Logic

Classical Education, Logic, Trivium, Why learn logic?, , , , , , ,

Sayers’ Vision for Logic

In her seminal essay “The Lost Tools of Learning,” the author Dorothy Sayers describes her understanding of the medieval scheme of education, specifically the Trivium — the three liberal arts of grammar, logic, and rhetoric. She argues that students in the Middle Ages were taught the proper use of the tools of learning by means of these arts. Of logic she says,

dorothy[1]“Second, he learned how to use language; how to define his terms and make accurate statements; how to construct an argument and how to detect fallacies in argument.”

As I have taught logic in the classroom, written logic texts (and blog posts), and spoken on logic and classical education around the world, I have regularly returned to this quote. It is for me perhaps the most useful sentence (of the 238 sentences) in the essay.

A Proper Pedagogical Progression

In this sentence Sayers explains what logic is for: logic teaches us how to use language. This reminds us that the liberal arts of the Trivium are language arts (whereas the Quadrivium are mathematical arts). Specifically, logic teaches us how to use the language of reasoning, of disputation and proof.

This sentence also describes a proper pedagogical progression of logic:

  1. We must start with terms: how to define them, relate them, and work with them, including understanding the value of defining terms.
  2. Terms are related in statements (categorical statements connect subject terms with the predicate terms). Logic teaches us “how to make accurate statements”; that is, how to make statements that are true and applicable, as well as understanding how we know that they are true, and how they relate to each other. It teaches how to do this with many different types of statements: simple and compound, categorical and hypothetical, immediate inferences, and so on. Terms are the building blocks of statements.
  3. Statements are the building blocks of arguments, as we connect premises together to draw conclusions. So logic teaches us “how to construct an argument”; that is, how to write a valid argument to establish a desired conclusion.  It teaches how to do this with many types of arguments: categorical and propositional, conditional and disjunctive, symbolic arguments and arguments in normal English.
  4. Finally, logic teaches us “how to detect fallacies in argument,” both the formal fallacies from the rules of validity for categorical syllogisms and propositional arguments, and the informal fallacies of ordinary discourse, like circular reasoning and ad hominem. Logic teaches us not only to detect them, but to name them, and to expose them by means of counterexamples to those untrained in logic.

Were I to add one element to Sayers’ list, it would be “to construct a proof in a step-by-step, justified manner.” With this addition, every page, every concept of both Introductory and Intermediate Logic is covered in Sayers’ helpful description of what is encompassed in learning logic.

Logic: A Science and Art

Classical Education, Logic, Trivium, Why learn logic?, , ,

Is logic a science or an art? Of course, a logician would answer Yes, and here is why.

A science is a systematic study of some aspect of the natural world that seeks to discover laws (regularities, principles) by which God governs His creation. Whereas botany studies plants, astronomy studies the sky, and anatomy studies the body, logic studies the mind as it reasons, as it draws conclusions from other information. Logic as a science seeks to discover rules that distinguish good reasoning from poor reasoning, rules that are then simplified and systematized. These would include the rules for validity, of inference and replacement, and so on.

For example, logic as a science could study the apostle Paul’s reasoning in 1 Cor. 15, “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised… But Christ has been raised, and is therefore the first fruits from among the dead.” It then simplifies this into a standard pattern: If not R then not C, C, therefore R. This rule can be further simplified, named, and organized in relation to other rules of logic.

An art is a creative application of the principles of nature for the production of works of beauty, skill, and practical use. The visual arts apply their principles to the production of paintings, sculptures, and pottery. The literary arts produce poems and stories. The performing arts produce operas, plays, and ballets.

Logic is one of the seven liberal arts, which include the Trivium of grammar, logic, and rhetoric. These arts are the skills which are essential for a free person (liberalis, “worthy of a free person”) to take an active part in daily life, for the benefit of others. Specifically, logic as an art seeks to apply the principles of reasoning to analyze and create arguments, proofs, and other chains of reasoning.

In summary:

Logic is the science and art of reasoning well. Logic as a science seeks to discover rules of reasoning; logic as an art seeks to apply those rules to rational discourse.

Digital Logic Q & A

Mr. Nance,

I have an overload of questions on digital logic. Hope that is okay!

1. Truth-functional completeness often makes circuits more complicated than they have to be. Is there anything besides cost-effectiveness that is beneficial about truth-functional completeness?

I assume you are asking “Why do we learn how to use NOR gates or NAND gates exclusively in a circuit?” Primarily, it is just to teach students how the gates work. But in practice, if you are constructing an electronic device, you may not have all the gates available (e.g. Radio Shack ran out and will not get them in for ten days), and so need to use a couple of NAND gates to do the job of one AND gate. Also, you might only use one NOR gate in the circuit, but a chip might contain four NOR gates, so why not just use three of them to replace an AND gate instead of buying one?

2. Since the symbol for NOR is the upside-down triangle, is there a symbol for NAND?

The triangle symbol is largely my own convention. See the Wikipedia page for the standard ways of expressing NOR. I know of no special symbol for NAND.

3. Is there a conditional gate (P ⊃ Q)?

Not that I am aware of. You can make a conditional using other gates.

4. Why do we write the names of logic gates in all caps? ( AND instead of and or And)

Just to distinguish them from the words in a sentence. It would be confusing to read “Take an or gate and an and gate…”

5. Why in K-maps do we circle in groups in powers of two?

Because that’s how they work to correctly simplify propositions. Draw yourself a K-map with 0111 across the top four cells, and 1110 across the bottom four cells. If you made two circles with groups of three across and ask, “What variable stays the same (negated or unnegated)?” the answer is that nothing stays the same, so no proposition can be identified. To get the simplest proposition, you must circle the middle four square, and the two on the top right and bottom left. Spend some time thinking through exactly what the K-map is doing when you circle groups and determine the proposition from the circled group. (See the next question.)

6. Finally, do K-maps eliminate the need for the Algebraic identities? I found that doing the Digital Logic Project didn’t require using them.

Yes, that is their primary benefit. Consider the proposition (p • q) ∨ (p • ~q). This simplifies this way:

  1. (p • q) ∨ (p • ~q)  Given
  2. p • (q ∨ ~q)  Distribution
  3. p • 1  Tautology
  4. p  Alg. identity

Now do a 2×2 K-map for this proposition:

 

 

 

See how it does the same thing in a faster, easier way?

Blessings!

Parentheses in Conditionals

Mr. Nance,

Could you please explain how the placement of the parentheses is determined in Test 1, Form A, #12 of Intermediate Logic? My student wrote “(M ⊃ P) ⊃ ~C,” but the answer key says “M ⊃ (P ⊃ ~C).”

The original proposition is,

“If we see a movie then if we eat popcorn then we do not eat candy.”

This proposition has the overall form p ⊃ q, where p is the antecedent, “We see a movie” (abbreviated M) and q is the consequent. This consequent is another complete conditional: “If we eat popcorn then we do not eat candy.” This is the (P ⊃ ~C). Because it is a complete proposition in itself, this consequent gets placed in parentheses.

It will be important later to note that propositions of the form p ⊃ (q ⊃ r) are equivalent to propositions of the form (p • q) ⊃ r. The given proposition could be understood in this way. “If we see a movie and eat popcorn, then we do not eat candy.” Notice in this form, “We see a movie and eat candy” is the antecedent, and it is a complete proposition in itself, and thus gets placed in parentheses.

Blessings!

Shorter Truth Tables for Validity

Mr. Nance,

As I am teaching shorter truth tables for validity, I noticed that sometimes (on a valid argument) I get the contradiction in a different place than the answer key does. Is that okay, or am I making a mistake?

You are probably not making a mistake.

The shorter truth table method used on a valid argument will always result in a contradiction, but where that contradiction appears depends on the order of the propositions you work with, which can certainly vary.

For example, on Exercise 8, problem #1, the answer key shows the contradiction in two places, which happens if you find all of the truth values in the conclusion first, before going back to the premises.

STT1

But you might start by getting the truth values for S and W from the antecedent of the conclusion first, and then going directly to the premises. That would bring you to this point:STT2

Now, for the premises to be true, the consequents of each (P and F) must be true as well. That gives the contradiction in the conclusion, instead of in the premises as before:STT1

This is a perfectly legitimate answer. In the answer key, I tried to place the truth values in the positions I thought most likely for other who did the problem correctly. Typically, after making the premises true and the conclusion false, I try to start on the right side (the conclusion) and work my way left.

Here are a few more thoughts.

Shorter truth tables take some time to learn. Do not rush through them. Students need lots of examples to see how they work. Also, make sure you and they understand the concept behind them. You are assuming that the argument is invalid (by making the premises true and the conclusion false). If this assumption leads to an unavoidable contradiction, then the argument cannot be invalid, so it must be valid. But if you assume the argument is invalid and can fill out all the truth values without any contradiction, you have shown that the premises can be true and the conclusion false, i.e. you have shown it to be invalid.

Keep this in mind also: For each proposition (premise or conclusion), you must place the truth values under the main logical operator. The main logical operator is the operator in the column that would be the last to be filled out in the larger truth table. For example, consider this compound proposition:

~(p • q) ⊃ r

If this were a premise of an argument, the T would be placed under the conditional. But for the proposition

~[(p • q) ⊃ r]

the T would be placed under the negation. Working the truth values all the way out for this proposition would result in the truth values shown here:

~[(p • q) ⊃ r]
T   T T T  F  F

Feel free to comment if you have any questions.

Truth Tables for Validity

Intermediate Logic, Introductory Logic, ,

Truth tables can be used to determine the validity of propositional arguments. In a valid argument, if the premises are true, then the conclusion must be true. The truth table for a valid argument will not have any rows in which the premises are true and the conclusion is false. For example, here is a truth table of a modus tollens argument, with the final columns, showing it to be valid:

TT1

The fourth row down is the only row with true premises, and in that row it also has a true conclusion. So this argument is valid.

An argument is invalid when there is at least one row with true premises and a false conclusion, such as in this affirming the consequent truth table: Continue reading Truth Tables for Validity →