University:
Missouri State University
Course:
PHI 105 | Critical Thinking
Academic year:

2024
Views:

245

Pages:

2
Author:

JUnitilv

INTRODUCTION TO SENTENTIAL LOGIC SKILLS TO ACQUIRE 1. IDENTIFYING AND TRANSLATING SIMPLE CLAIMS 2. IDENTIFYING AND TRANSLATING COMPLEX CLAIMS 3. TRANSLATING ARGUMENTS INTO SENTENTIAL LOGIC 4. USING TRUTH TABLES TO DESCRIBE A SENTENCE 5. USING TRUTH TABLES TO SHOW THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SENTENCES 6. USING TRUTH TABLES TO IDENTIFY AN ARGUMENT AS VALID/INVALID INTRODUCTION TO SENTENTIAL LOGIC Sentential logic is the study of logic based on simple sentences as the smallest unit. Sentential logic governs the creation of complex claims from simple claims. SIMPLE CLAIM A simple claim is the shortest possible unit of expression that expresses a complete thought (something capable of being true or false). Kara got her hair cut. COMPOUND CLAIMS Compound claims are made by adding sentence connectives to simple claims. Any sentence that contains a sentence connective is a compound sentence in sentential logic. The word “AND” is a sentence connective. Kara got her hair dyed AND cut. Kara got her hair dyed AND Kara got her hair cut. Sentence Connectives We have the following truth functional sentence connectives: NOT, AND, OR, and IMPLIES. The “NOT” connective can be added to one claim (such as “Kara got her hair dyed.”) to make the compound claim (NOT “Kara got her hair dyed”). All other sentence connectives (AND, OR, and IMPLIES) are used to combine (or connect) more than one simple claims to produce compound claims. NOTE: The sentence connectives ‘and’ and ‘or’ have to be at least binary in that they must connect at least two simple claims (A & B). However, they can be tri-ary, etc. just by adding on more conjuncts or disjuncts (A & B & C). REPRESENTING A COMPOUND CLAIM Simple Claims Letters: We represent each simple claim with a capital letter that corresponds to the sentence (to make it easier to remember). Sentence Connective Symbols: We use the following symbols to represent sentence connectives. AND -- & OR – V IF/THEN or IMPLIES -- 