Truth and Validity

BITS Pilani
Pilani Campus
Dr. Anupam Yadav
Arguments with Validity
and Invalidity Issues
Some valid arguments with true premises and true conclusion:

All mammals have lungs.

(I) All whales are mammals.
Therefore, all whales have lungs.

But an argument may contain false propositions and still be valid:

(II)All ten-legged creatures have wings

All spiders have ten legs.
Therefore, All spiders have wings.

(III) All trouts are mammals. (iv) All Gujaratis are Indians
All mammals have wings. All Indians are Asians
Therefore, all trouts have wings Therefore, all Gujaratis are Asians.

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

 Examples
 Arguments with false premises and true conclusions may be valid or invalid:
(VI) All fishes are mammals.
All whales are fishes
Therefore, all whales are mammals.
 An invalid argument with false premises and true conclusion:
(VII) All mammals have wings.
All whales have wings.
Therefore, all whales are mammals.
 Some invalid arguments all false propositions:
(VIII) All mammals have wings.
All whales have wings.
Therefore, all whales are mammals.
BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Arguments with true premises

Some invalid arguments contain only true propositions.

( V) If I am President, then I am famous.

I am not President.
Therefore, I am not famous.

Consider another argument having the same form:

(VI) If Bill Gates is President, then Bill Gates is famous.

Bill Gates is not President.
Therefore, Bill Gates is not famous.

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Important Features

 The truth and falsity of an argument’s conclusion does not

determine the validity or invalidity of the argument.
 The validity of an argument does not guarantee the truth
of its conclusion.
 The falsity of the conclusion does not guarantee the
invalidity of the argument. But it guarantees that either the
argument is invalid or at least one of its premises is false.
 An argument must satisfy two conditions in order to
establish the truth of its conclusion.
(i) It must be Valid
(ii) All of its premises must be true.

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Logical and Scientific Inquiries:
 A logician is not interested in finding out the
truth of the premises which is the task of the
scientists.
 But the logical reasoning plays important role
in scientific inquiries when we test the truth of
our theories and also in the issues of practical
life where we have to take decision between
the alternative options.
 What we cannot check in advance is the truth
of things but certainly we can trust our
reasoning. BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
 THANK YOU
BITS Pilani
Pilani Campus