Course: Logic: The Language of Truth

Now we can set out the project we’re going to pursue for the rest of this course. We’re going to look at the logic of some key expressions which play …

Let’s look more closely at this use of a truth-table to define a connective. Here’s the truth-table for ampersand again: Figure 1. The defining truth-table for ampersand Let’s highlight some …

Here is an argument for the view that arrow and ‘if … then … ’ have the same truth-table. This argument uses some of the key resources we’ve developed in …

There’s a way around the problem we just noted. There’s a neat device which will allow us to capture the definition of the meaning and logical powers of ‘&’ without …

The first connective we’ll define for our logical language is ‘&’ — called ampersand. We’ll stipulate (fix by definition) that ‘&’ is what’s called a two-place sentence connective. That is, …

You’ve come a long way in a short time in terms of exploring formal logic and its application to clarifying and evaluating arguments expressed in natural language. Let’s look at …

‘If … then … ’ sentences in English (and related sentences in other languages) are called conditionals. As we’ve noted already, arrow sentences are classed as conditionals. There do seem …

Last week, we saw that logic is the systematic study of good reasoning, where ‘good’ is understood in a particular way—in terms of there being a positive relationship between the …

Take another look at one of our example arguments. Mattie is tidying or Mattie is gaming online Mattie is not tidying So, Mattie is gaming online The conclusion is (expressed …

Here is the truth-table which defines the meaning of our connective ampersand (‘&’): Figure 1. The defining truth-table for ampersand Let’s look more closely at this definition and how it …

We’re going to look now at a further sharpening of focus for our project. One that will bring us closer to giving a systematic account of good reasoning. Take a …

A further reason to look closely at validity picks up from the first reason: focusing on valid arguments will be particularly helpful in sorting out what to believe. This is …

As you’ll have noticed from the arguments which figured in the last step, not every argument which is not valid is a terrible argument. In fact, in each of the …