Introduction to Logic

Intro
We intuitively know that Truth and Falsehood are
opposites. That statements describe the world
and can be true/false. That the world is made
up of objects and that objects can be organized
to form collections.
The foundations of logic mimic our intuitions by
setting down constructs that behave
analogously.

Lecture 1 2
 A Taste of Logic
Logic puzzles
(1)Knights and Knaves
Knights: always tell the truth
Knaves: always lie
 You encounter two people A and B.
A says: "B is a knight"
B says: "The two of us are opposite
types"
Q: What are A and B?
Lecture 1 3
 Why Study Logic?
• Why do we need to think logically? Isn’t it
better perhaps, to be spontaneous,
intuitive and perceptive?
– Reasoning is
• drawing out conclusion on the basis of certain
evidence,
• infer one thing from another or
• to figure out consequences of a certain course of
action.
 Why Study Logic?
• to recognize and use certain very common forms of
correct logical inference and avoid certain common
logical errors.
• To increase our ability to construct extended chains of
reasoning and to deal with more complex problems:
– Consider a number of options, consequences of each
of these options and consequences of the
consequences
• To not just how to reason correctly, but also why certain
forms of inference are correct and others incorrect.
 Logic

• Is concerned with verbal expression of

reasoning (argument), whether arguments
are good or bad, correct or incorrect
• An argument - a set of sentences
consisting of one or more premises, which
contain the evidence, and a conclusion,
which is supposed to follow from the
premises.
 Example of an argument

John will not get an A on this exam unless

he studied hard for it.
John did not study hard for this exam.
Therefore, John will not get an A on this
exam.
 Correctness of argument
• Depends on the connection between
premises and conclusion, and not on
whether the premises are true or not.
• It is generally the task of other disciplines
to assess the truth or falsity of particular
statements
 A valid deductive argument
• Has the strongest conceivable kind of
logical relationship with all premises that
are true, then the conclusion established
by the argument is true as well.
 Induction vs. Deduction
• Distinction lies in the intended strength of
the connection between premises and
conclusion.
• In a deductive argument, the premises are
intended to provide total support for the
conclusion
• In an inductive argument, the premises are
only supposed to provide some degree of
support for the conclusion.
 Inductive or Deductive?
• John gets A’s on 95% of the exams for
which he studies, and that he did study for
this exam, therefore, he will probably get
an A on this exam.
• 99.9% of commercial airline flights are
completed without incident, we may
correctly infer that the next airplane we
take will almost certainly arrive safely.
 Induction or Deduction?
John cannot get into law school unless he
scores well on the LSAT exam
John did not score well on the exam
Therefore, John cannot get into law school.
 Induction vs. Deduction
• Deduction: either the premises do provide
absolute support for the conclusion, in
which case the argument is valid, or they
do not, in which case it is invalid.
• Induction: the “goodness” of an argument
is a matter of degree.
 Scope and limitation
• This course is concerned exclusively with
deductive logic because:
– It is so clear-cut
– It is easier and better suited to a foundation to
math course
– At present, there is no generally accepted
system of inductive logic
 Valid vs. Invalid arguments
• A valid deductive argument is one in which
the truth of the premises absolutely
guarantees the truth of the conclusion.
• An invalid argument, by contrast, is one in
which it is possible for the premises all to
be true but the conclusion false.
 Form and Validity
1. All horses are green. 2. If Duterte is the president, then
All green things are plastic. Robredo is the vice-president.
--------------------------------------- Robredo is the vice-president.
 All horses are plastic. ------------------------------------------------
 Duterte is the president.
a valid argument
an invalid argument

this is all rather abstract, isn’t it?

 Form and Validity
• It is the form of an argument that
determines its logical validity. Thus,
• Symbolic logic turns out to be primarily the
study of the abstract forms and structures
used in argumentation.
 Form and Validity
• Consider the ff, notion of two arguments
having the same form:
1. Either F. Marcos was elected 2. Jose is either at the movies or
in 1986 or Cory Aquino was at home.
elected in 1986. Jose is not at home.
F. Marcos was not elected in ---------------------------------------
1986.  Jose is at the movies.
---------------------------------------
Either p or q
 Cory Aquino was elected in 1986.
not q
---------------------------
What is the pattern? p
 Sentential Logic
• Complete simple sentences are taken as
unbroken units and are not analyzed into
their component parts.
• The form of a compound sentence or
argument is then determined by how these
simple sentences are combined with
certain logical words, such as “and”, “or”,
and “not”.
 Predicate Logic
• Three other logical words, “all”, “some”
and “equals” and another kind of variable,
which represents individual objects rather
than sentences.
• Analysis of form is somewhat more
complex than in sentential logic.
 Predicate Logic
These are 2 instances:
1. All U.S. Presidents have been 2. All snakes are reptiles.
male. Some snakes are poisonous.
Some U.S. Presidents have been -------------------------------------------
generals.  Some reptiles are poisonous.
------------------------------------------------
 Some males are generals.

Common form:
All A’s are B’s
Some A’s are C’s
--------------------------------------
 Some B’s are C’s
 Form vs. Instances

• The form is the general pattern or

structure, which abstracts from all specific
subject matter
• Instances are the particular meaningful
examples that exhibit that form.
 Instance
• In sentential logic, it is obtained from a
form by substituting meaningful sentences
(consistently) for the p’s and q’s;
• In predicate logic, instances are obtained
by substituting class terms for the capital
letters A, B, and C.
 Advantages of using symbols
• Easier to manipulate
• They provide economical shorthand
• Allow us to see at a glance the overall
structure of a sentence
 Symbolic system of
sentential logic
• Single letter to stand for simple sentences,
such as “Juan enrolled in Geometry”
• Special symbols for the five logical words
“and”, “or”, “not”, “if-then”, and “if-and-only-
if”
• Grouping symbols such as parentheses
• No attempt of analysis of simple
sentences
 Symbolic system of
predicate logic

• Analysis will go a bit deeper into the

sentence structure such as subject and
predicate