Modus Tollens

Modus Tollens is a rule of inference

pertaining to the connective.
Assume we have:
P Q: "If it is raining, then there are
clouds in the sky."
P (it is raining) is called the antecedent.
Q (there are clouds in the sky) is called
the consequent.

Modus Tollens
Modus tollens sates that if the consequent
is false, then the antecedent is false.
Now if we know for a fact that there are no
clouds in the sky, we can safely conclude
that it is not raining.
If the consequent ("There are clouds in the
sky") is false, then the antecedent ("It is
raining") must also be false, by Modus
Tollens.

Modus Tollens
Let's write our steps formally:
P Q: "If it is raining, then there are clouds in the sky."
~Q: "There are no clouds in the sky."
---------~P: "It is not raining."
The conditional P Q and the given ~Q are above the
line of dashes, and the conclusion ~P obtained by
applying Modus Tollens is below the line.
P Q:
~Q:
---------~P:

DeMorgan's Law
DeMorgan's law is a rule of inference pertaining to the
NOT, AND, and OR connectives.
DeMorgan's law is used to distribute a negative to a
conjunction or disjunction.
Let us consider the following statement:
"It is not true that he took both Database and
Networking."
Formally, we would write:
~(C ^ P): "It is not true that he took both Database and
Networking.
In this expression, C refers to the phrase "He took
Database" and P refers to the phrase "He took
Networking."

DeMorgan's Law

DeMorgan's law states that this expression can be converted into

another expression, completely equivalent to the original:
~C v ~P: "He did not take Database or he did not take Networking."
To understand why, let's first see what the original statement:
"It is not true that he took both Database and Networking" means.
It can mean three things:
1. He took Database but not Networking. (C is true and P is false, or
~P is true).
2. He took Networking but not Database. (P is true and C is false, or
~C is true).
3. He did not take either Database or Networking. (C is false and P
is false, or ~P and ~C are true).

DeMorgan's Law

If we look closely at these three conclusions, we see that in all of

them either ~P is true, or ~C is true, or both ~P and ~C are true.
This is an example of a disjunction.
Formally, we would write the following, together with the original
statement:
~(C ^ P): "It is not true that he took both Database and Networking."
---------~C v ~P: "He did not take Database or he did not take Networking."
That is exactly what DeMorgan's law means.
The given expression ~(C ^ P) is above the line of dashes, and the
new expression ~C v ~P formed by applying DeMorgan's law is
below the line.

DeMorgan's Law
It can also work where a disjunction is
converted into a conjunction with the
negation of each member of the
expression.
~(P v Q): "It is not true that the book is
boring or the newspaper is interesting."
---------~P ^ ~Q: "The book is not boring and the
newspaper is not interesting."

Chain Rule
The Chain Rule is a rule of inference
pertaining to the connective.
The Chain Rule is used to combine two
conditionals of the form P Q and Q
R into P R.
Imagine we are given two conditionals, P
Q and Q R:
P Q: "If Jane leaves home late, she will
miss her train.

Chain Rule
Now let's consider the second conditional,
Q R.
Note that it contains the same letter that
we used in the first conditional, namely Q.
This means that Q has to remain the
same as in the first conditional.

Chain Rule
Q R: "If Jane misses her train, she will
be late for work."
Given the two conditionals, It is perfectly
natural for us to say:
"If Jane leaves home late, she will be late
for work."

Chain Rule

Formally, we would write:

P Q: "If Jane leaves home late, she will miss her train."
Q R: "If Jane misses her train, she will be late for work."
---------P R: "If Jane leaves home late, she will be late for work."
The given conditionals are above the line of dashes, and the new
expression P R formed by applying the Chain Rule is below the
line.
P Q:
Q R:
---------P R:

Modus Ponens
Modus Ponens is a rule of inference pertaining to the
connectives.
Modus Ponens states that if the antecedent of a
conditional is true, then the consequent must also be
true.
Imagine we have the following conditional sentence: "If it
is raining, then there are clouds in the sky."
Formally, we would write:
P Q: "If it is raining, then there are clouds in the sky."

Modus Ponens
In this expression, "If it is raining" is the
antecedent and "There are clouds in the
sky" is the consequent.
Now if we know for a fact that it is raining,
then we have to conclude that there are
clouds in the sky. If the antecedent ("It is
raining") is true, then the consequent
("There are clouds in the sky") must also
be true, by Modus Ponens.

Modus Ponens
Let's write our steps formally:
P Q: "If it is raining, then there are clouds in the sky."
P: "It is raining."
---------Q: "There are clouds in the sky."
The conditional P Q and the given p are above the
line of dashes, and the conclusion Q obtained by
applying Modus Ponens is below the line.
P Q:
P:
---------Q: