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Logic and Reasoning - Euler Diagrams and Validity of Arguments

* Junie always tells the truth. So Junie cannot be on the left. * Mickey never tells the truth. So Mickey cannot be on the right. * The child on the left said "Junie is in the middle". Since Junie cannot be on the left, this must be Mickey, who never tells the truth. * The child in the middle said "I'm Glory". Since the middle child said this, and it was not Junie or Mickey, this child must be Glory. * Therefore, the seating arrangement from left to right is: Mickey, Glory, Junie.

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193 views

Logic and Reasoning - Euler Diagrams and Validity of Arguments

* Junie always tells the truth. So Junie cannot be on the left. * Mickey never tells the truth. So Mickey cannot be on the right. * The child on the left said "Junie is in the middle". Since Junie cannot be on the left, this must be Mickey, who never tells the truth. * The child in the middle said "I'm Glory". Since the middle child said this, and it was not Junie or Mickey, this child must be Glory. * Therefore, the seating arrangement from left to right is: Mickey, Glory, Junie.

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Dumb Coffee
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Logic and Reasoning

Euler Diagrams
Validity of Arguments
Answer to Previous Exercise
Draw a valid conclusion given the following premises:
No kitten that loves fish is unteachable.
No kitten without a tail will play with a gorilla.
Kittens with whiskers always love fish.
No teachable kitten has green eyes.
No kittens have tails unless they have whiskers.

Answer: Kittens with green eyes do not play with gorillas.


Euler Diagrams
An Euler diagram is a visual representation of
relationships between sets.

An Euler diagram can also be used to verify


the validity of an arguments where the
premises involve conditional statements and
quantifiers.
“All”, “Every”
All bloops are blips.
⇔ The set of bloops is a subset of the set of blips.
blips
bloops
“All”, “Every”
All cats are mammals.
Every number divisible by six is also divisible
by two.
“All”, “Every”
The quantifier “all” does not guarantee the
existence of the elements of the sets involved.

All bloops are blips.


If there are no bloops but there are blips the statement is still true.
If there are no bloops and no blips, the statement is also true.

Why?
“Some”, “There exists”
Some bloops are blips.
⇔ There exists bloops that are blips.
blips
bloops
“Some”, “There exists”
The quantifier “some”, by default, only
guarantees the existence of at least one
element.
“Some”, “There exists”
Some dogs are hairy.
Some birds can fly.
Some numbers divisible by five are also
divisible by two.
“No”
No bloops are blips.
⇔ All bloops are not blips.
bloops
blips
“No”
Since “no” is just the negation of the
quantifier “all”, the existence of the elements
of the sets involved is also not guaranteed.
Validity of Arguments
An argument is valid if the conclusion is
satisfied by all possible Euler diagrams
representing all premises.
Examples
1. All dogs are hairy. Cotton is a dog. Therefore, Cotton is hairy.
2. All dogs are hairy. My pet Cotton is hairy. Therefore, Cotton is a dog.
3. All dogs are hairy. My pet Donut is not hairy. Therefore, Donut is not a
dog.
4. All cats are mammals. My pet Donut is not a cat. Therefore, Donut is not a
mammal.
5. All cats are mammals. All mammals are animals. Therefore, all cats are
animals.
6. All parrots are birds. Some birds are colorful. Therefore, some parrots are
colorful.
7. All parrots are birds. Some parrots fly. Therefore, some birds fly.
8. All parrots are birds. All cats are mammals. No bird is a mammal.
Therefore, no parrot is a cat.
General Method for Validating Arguments
A statement is a tautology if it is always true.
An argument with premises 𝑝1 , 𝑝2 , … , 𝑝𝑛 and
conclusion 𝐶, is valid if the statement
𝑝1 ∧ 𝑝2 ∧ ⋯ ∧ 𝑝𝑛 → 𝐶
is a tautology.
Valid Argument Forms
Modus ponens If it is a dog, then it is hairy.
𝑝→𝑞 Cotton is a dog.
Therefore, Cotton is hairy.
𝑝
𝑞
Valid Argument Forms
Modus tollens If it is a dog, then it is hairy.
Cotton is not hairy.
𝑝→𝑞
Therefore, Cotton is not a
~𝑞 dog.
~𝑝
Valid Argument Forms
Syllogism If it is a cat, then it is a mammal.
If it is a mammal then it is an
𝑝→𝑞
animal.
𝑞→𝑟 Therefore, if it is a cat, then it is an
𝑝→𝑟 animal.
Limitations of Logical Validity
If the ground is wet, then it rained.
The ground is wet.
Therefore, it rained.

Arguments based on false premises cannot


be refuted.
Inductive and Deductive Reasoning
Deductive reasoning is the process of
reasoning from a general statement to a
specific instance.

All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore,


Socrates is mortal.
Inductive and Deductive Reasoning
Inductive reasoning is the process of
reasoning from specific instances to a general
statement.

2 is an even number. 12 is an even number. 22 is an even number.


Therefore, all numbers ending in 2 are even.
Inductive and Deductive Reasoning
Deductive reasoning is useful when absolute
truths are known.

Every number that ends in zero is divisible by two. 120 ends in


zero. Therefore, 120 is divisible by two.

Every power of an odd number is also odd. 23 is an odd


number. Therefore, 2310 is odd.
Inductive and Deductive Reasoning
Inductive reasoning is useful when conclusions
must be drawn from observations and patterns.

There is no guarantee that the pattern repeats


infinitely.
Example
1. Find the next two numbers in the given sequences.
a. 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, x, y
b. 3, 9, 15, 21, 27, x, y
c. 3, 15, 75, x, y
d. 5, 8, 13, 20, x, y
2. Find 11 x 11 and 111 x 111. Based on the pattern you observe,
what is 1111111 x 1111111 ?
Example
Use inductive reasoning to decipher the English text below:

- Haruki Murakami
Example
(From https://brightside.me/wonder-quizzes/can-you-solve-this-famous-logical-puzzle-about-
people-with-green-eyes-128855/)
• Imagine there’s an island where a mad dictator holds 100 people captive, and all of them are
great mathematicians. They can’t escape, but there is one strange rule governing their
captivity. At night, any prisoner is allowed to ask the guard for his freedom. If he has green
eyes, he’ll be released, otherwise he’ll be dropped into a volcano.
• It turns out that all 100 prisoners have green eyes. But they’ve all been living on the island
since they were born, and the dictator has done all that he can to ensure that none of them
will ever be able to find out what color eyes they have. There are no mirrors on the island,
and all water visible to the prisoners is opaque — thus they cannot see their reflection. And
most importantly, the prisoners are not allowed to communicate among themselves.
• Nevertheless, they see each other at roll call every morning. Everybody knows that no one
will dare ask for their freedom unless they are absolutely sure of their success. Under
considerable pressure from human rights organizations, the dictator was forced to permit
you to visit the island and speak to the prisoners, but only under the following conditions.
You may only make one statement, and you can’t provide them with any new information.
So how can you help the prisoners without breaking the agreement with the dictator?
Example
Three school children Junie, Glory, and Mickey are
sitting side by side. Junie always tells the truth, Glory
sometimes tells the truth and Mickey never tells
the truth. The child on the left says “Junie is in the
middle”. The child in the middle says “I’m Glory”, and
the child on the right says “Mickey is in the middle”.
Determine the seating arrangement of the three.

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