ARGUMENTS

Definition: An argument is a sequence of statements, and an

argument form is a sequence of statement forms.
All statements in an argument and all statement forms in an
argument form, except for the final one, are called premises (or
assumptions or hypotheses).
The final statement or statement form is called the conclusion.
The symbol ∴, which is read “therefore,” is normally placed just
before the conclusion.
An example of an argument:
“If you have a current password, then you can log onto the
network.”
“You have a current password.”
Therefore, “You can log onto the network.”
The first two statements are the premises and the last is the
conclusion.
An argument makes two distinct claims:
1) A factual claim: that the premises are true
2) An inferential claim: that the premises support the
conclusion
Identifying Premises and Conclusions
Arguments in natural language aren’t usually presented in
standard form, so we need to know how to extract the logical
structure from the language that’s given.

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Consider the argument:
“Abortion is wrong because all human life is sacred.”
Question: which is the conclusion?
“Abortion is wrong”? or “All human life is sacred”?
It’s clear that “Abortion is wrong” is the conclusion, and
“All human life is sacred” is the premise.
In this argument, the word “because” is an indicator word, a word
that indicates the logical relationship of claims that come before it
or after it.
Rewriting this argument in standard form, it looks like this ...
All human life is sacred.
Therefore, abortion is wrong.
The following are key words or phrases that indicate
a PREMISES:
For, Because, since, supposing that, assuming that, given that, seeing
that, granted that, this is true because, it is a fact that, in as much as,
one cannot doubt that, owing to.

The following are key words or phrases that indicate

a CONCLUSION:
therefore, so, hence, thus, it follows that, as a result, consequently, which
means that, from which we can infer, which proves that,

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Valid Arguments in Propositional Logic
To say that an argument form is valid means that no matter what
particular statements are substituted for the statement variables
in its premises, if the resulting premises are all true, then the
conclusion is also true.
To say that an argument is valid means that its form is valid.
An argument which is not valid is called fallacy.
Determining Validity or Invalidity
To test the validity of an argument, we use the following three-
step process
1. Symbolize each premise and the conclusion.
2. Make a truth table that has a column for each premise and a
column for the conclusion.
3. A row of the truth table in which all the premises are true is
called a critical row.
If there is a critical row in which the conclusion is false, then the
argument is invalid.
If the conclusion in every critical row is true, then the argument
form is valid.
Its clear that when you fill in the table, you only need to indicate
the truth values for the conclusion in the rows where all the
premises are true (the critical rows) because the truth values of
the conclusion in the other rows are irrelevant to the validity or
invalidity of the argument.

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Example: Test the validity of the following argument;
If you invest in the Gomermatic Corporation, then you get rich.
You didn't invest in the Gomermatic Corporation.
Therefore, you didn't get rich.
Solution: Symbolize the argument.
Let p be the statement "You invest in the Gomermatic
corporation."
Let q be the statement "You get rich."
Then the argument has this symbolic form:
p→q
~p
∴ ~q
Make a truth table having a column for each premise and for the
conclusion.

Interpret the truth table.

Notice that in the third row, the conclusion is FALSE while both
premises are TRUE.
This tells us that the argument is INVALID.

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Example: Determine whether the following argument form is
valid or invalid by drawing a truth table, indicating which
columns represent the premises and which represent the
conclusion, and annotating the table with a sentence of
explanation.

Solution: The truth table shows that even though there are several
situations in which the premises and the conclusion are all true
(rows 1, 7, and 8), there is one situation (row 4) where the
premises are true and the conclusion is false.

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Rules of Inference for Propositional Logic
We can always use a truth table to show that an argument form is
valid. We do this by showing that whenever the premises are
true, the conclusion must also be true. However, this can be a
tedious approach.
For example, when an argument form involves 10 different
propositional variables, to use a truth table to show this argument
form is valid requires 210 = 1024 different rows. Fortunately, we
do not have to resort to truth tables. Instead, we can first establish
the validity of some relatively simple argument forms, called
rules of inference. These rules of inference can be used as
building blocks to construct more complicated valid argument
forms.
We will now introduce the most important rules of inference in
propositional logic.
1. Modus Ponens:
An argument form consisting of two premises and a
conclusion is called a syllogism.
The most famous example is modus ponens , also called the
law of detachment or method of affirming.
It is a valid argument of the form:
p→q
p
∴q

Exercise: Verify its validity using a truth table.

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2. Modus Tollens/Method of denying: This is a valid argument
of the form:
p→q
~q
∴ ~p
3. Disjunctive Addition or generalization rules: This is a valid
argument of the form
p
∴p∨q

4. Rule of Simplification or conjuctive simplification or

specialization rule:
This is a valid argument of the form
p∧q
∴p
5. Rule of Conjunction This is a valid argument of the form
p
q
∴ p∧q

6. Disjunctive syllogism or Elimination rule: This is a valid

argument of the form
p∨q
~p
∴q

7. Rule of Resolution This is a valid argument of the form

p∨q
~p ∨ r
∴q∨r
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8. Transitivity Rule or the law of syllogism or the rule of
hypothetical syllogism: This is a valid argument of the form
p→q
q→ r
∴p→r
9. Converse error: This is an invalid argument of the form:
p→q
q
∴p
10. Inverse error: This is an invalid argument of the form:
p→q
~p
∴~q

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 Inference Rules Summary table

Using Rules of Inference to Build Arguments

When there are many premises, several rules of inference are
often needed to show that an argument is valid. This is illustrated
by Examples below, where the steps of arguments are displayed
on separate lines, with the reason for each step explicitly stated.
These examples also show how arguments in English can be
analyzed using rules of inference.

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Example: Show that the premises lead to the conclusion:
“It is not sunny this afternoon and it is colder than yesterday,”
“We will go swimming only if it is sunny,”
“If we do not go swimming, then we will take a canoe trip,”
“If we take a canoe trip, then we will be home by sunset” lead to
∴ “We will be home by sunset.”
Solution: Let p be the proposition “It is sunny this afternoon,”
q the proposition “It is colder than yesterday,”
r the proposition “We will go swimming,”
s the proposition “We will take a canoe trip,” and
t the proposition “We will be home by sunset.”
Then the premises become
~p ∧ q
r→p
~r→s
s →t
∴t

We construct an argument to show that our premises lead to the

desired conclusion as follows.

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 Step Reason
1. ~p ∧ q Premise
2. ~p Simplification using (1)
3. r→p Premise
4. ~r Modus tollens using (2) and (3)
5. ~r→s Premise
6. s Modus ponens using (4) and (5)
7. s →t Premise
8. t Modus ponens using (6) and (7)

Example:
You are about to leave for school in the morning and discover
that you don’t have your glasses. You know the following
statements are true:
a. If I was reading the newspaper in the kitchen, then my glasses
are on the kitchen table.
b. If my glasses are on the kitchen table, then I saw them at
breakfast.
c. I did not see my glasses at breakfast.
d. I was reading the newspaper in the living room or I was
reading the newspaper in the kitchen.
e. If I was reading the newspaper in the living room then my
glasses are on the coffee table.
Where are the glasses?

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Solution Let RK = I was reading the newspaper in the kitchen.
GK = My glasses are on the kitchen table.
SB = I saw my glasses at breakfast.
RL = I was reading the newspaper in the living room.
GC = My glasses are on the coffee table.
Here is a sequence of steps you might use to reach the answer,
together with the rules of inference that allow you to draw the
conclusion of each step:

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