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An example: we are given the conditional fact that if it is a bear, then it can swim. Then, all 4 possibilities in the truth table are compared to that fact. If it is a bear, then it can swim — T; If it is a bear, then it can not swim — F; If it is not a bear, then it can swim — T because it doesn’t contradict our initial fact.
For example, even though material conditionals with false antecedents are vacuously true, the natural language statement "If 8 is odd, then 3 is prime" is typically judged false. Similarly, any material conditional with a true consequent is itself true, but speakers typically reject sentences such as "If I have a penny in my pocket, then Paris ...
Modus tollens is a mixed hypothetical syllogism that takes the form of "If P, then Q. Not Q. Therefore, not P." It is an application of the general truth that if a statement is true, then so is its contrapositive. The form shows that inference from P implies Q to the negation of Q implies the negation of P is a valid argument.
The symbol for material implication signifies the proposition as a hypothetical, or the "if–then" form, e.g. "if P, then Q". The biconditional statement of the rule of transposition (↔) refers to the relation between hypothetical (→) propositions , with each proposition including an antecedent and consequential term.
Equivalently, if P is true or Q is true and P is false, then Q is true. The name "disjunctive syllogism" derives from its being a syllogism, a three-step argument, and the use of a logical disjunction (any "or" statement.) For example, "P or Q" is a disjunction, where P and Q are called the statement's disjuncts.
In mathematics, certain kinds of mistaken proof are often exhibited, and sometimes collected, as illustrations of a concept called mathematical fallacy.There is a distinction between a simple mistake and a mathematical fallacy in a proof, in that a mistake in a proof leads to an invalid proof while in the best-known examples of mathematical fallacies there is some element of concealment or ...
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The most thoroughly researched branch of propositional logic is classical truth-functional propositional logic, [1] in which formulas are interpreted as having precisely one of two possible truth values, the truth value of true or the truth value of false. [19]