propositional

5/18/09 10Software

Skills to be acquired in this tutorial:

Proving an argument to be valid by displaying a derivation. Simple sentential derivations using some of the Rules of Inference.

Reading

Bergmann[2004] The Logic Book Section 5.1.

The Tutorial:

If you suspect that an symbolized argument might be valid, you should attempt to give a derivation of it.

A derivation is a proof of validity.

5/18/09

Review of new material

There are the truth-tables for the connectives...

Negation

F ∼F True False False True

Conjunction

2013

You need to know some propositional logic to be able to understand the tutorials to come. In particular, you need to know about the symbols used in propositional logic, truth tables, satisfiability, consistency, and semantic invalidity (by counter example). You do not need to know propositional rules of inference and derivations.

Howson [1997] will give you enough background.

Alternatively you could look at the first five propositional tutorials in Easy Deriver

12/19/20

Welcome!

The tutorials presented here look at some topics in logic to the level of intermediate to advanced Predicate Calculus. They build on the Tutorials of Easy Deriver which provided the introductory material to Propositional and Predicate Calculus.

The program, widgets, or Notes, should be accompanied by a suitable textbook, such as:

Welcome!

These web pages provide an introduction to logic to the level of Propositional and Predicate Calculus.

The focus of the program is on arguments and the question of whether they are valid. Arguments have the form <list of premises> ∴<conclusion>. An argument is valid if and only if it is not possible for all its premises to be true and its conclusion false at one and the same time; an argument which is not valid is invalid.

10/8/26

Welcome!

These web pages provide an introduction to logic to the level of Propositional and Predicate Calculus.

The focus of the program is on arguments and the question of whether they are valid. Arguments have the form <list of premises> ∴<conclusion>. An argument is valid if and only if it is not possible for all its premises to be true and its conclusion false at one and the same time; an argument which is not valid is invalid.

Roll your own derivations

8/12/26

You may have derivations of your own that you wish to try. Just type, paste, or drag and drop, them into the lower 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 ∼ ∧ ∨ ⊃ ≡ ∀ ∃ ∴

Review of Propositional Logic

2013

You now have to tools to appraise propositional arguments.

Let us run through how these might be used with two examples.

Example 1.

Consider the argument

If no human action is free, then no one is responsible for what they do.
If no one is responsible for what they do, no one should be punished.
Therefore
If no human action is free, no one should be punished.

First it should be symbolized