Deductive Reasoning

1. If Donald Trump is President of the

USA, then Melania Trump is First Lady.
2. If Lin is dead today, he died of cancer.
3. If the moon is made of green cheese,
then astronauts can eat moon rocks.

What, if any, can negate these arguments?

Are these arguments valid?

1. All emeralds are green.
The stone placed in the safe deposit box is
an emerald.
So, the stone placed in the safe deposit box
is green.
 
2. All emeralds are green.
The stone placed in the safe deposit box is
green.
So, the stone placed in the safe deposit
box is an emerald.

Are these arguments valid?

 Deductive reasoning
Logical validity
Categorical logic and syllogism
Truth-functional logic

AGENDA
 An argument in which the truth of
the premises is supposed to
necessitate the truth of the
conclusion.
◦ if all the premises are true, the
conclusion has to be true.
◦ if all the premises are true, the
conclusion is proved.
Deductive Argument
1) Assume all the premises are true,
even if one or more is clearly false.
2) Using only the information in the
premises plus common knowledge,
ask: Does the conclusion have to
be true?
Yes: Valid Argument
No: Invalid Argument
Determining Validity of Deductive
Arguments
Categorical logic (Ch.8)
◦ Studies the relations among classes or
categories of things
◦ basic kinds of claims:
 Categorical claims
 Categorical operations
 Categorical syllogism

Truth-functional logic (Ch.9)

Logical reasoning for validity

Categorical logic is based on the
relations of exclusion and inclusion
among classes.
Categorical logic gives us a set of rules
for making justified inferences about
classes of things.

Categorical logic
 Standard form structures
A: All………………. are…………..
E: No………………. are………….
I: Some…………… are………….
O: Some…………… are not………….
A claim is categorical if it is about classes of
things.
The subject term goes in the first blank
The predicate term goes in the second
blank. It is predicated of the subject term,

Illustrated by Venn Diagram

Categorical claims
 The range of “some” in
categorical logic is from as few as
one to as many as most of the
things in the category.

Quick guide to Venn diagram

Conversion:
• All pins are tops. Some tops are pins.
• No fish is whale. No whale is fish.
• Some boys are poets. Some poets are boys.
Obversion (between affirmative and negative):
• All birds are mammals. No birds are non-mammals.
• No poets are singers. All poets are non-singers.
• Some nurses are doctors. Some nurses are not non-
doctors.
• Some politicians are not statesmen. Some politicians are
non-statesmen.
Contraposition:
• All birds are mammals. All non-mammals are non-birds.
• Some birds are mammals. Some non-mammals are non-
birds.

Categorical Operations &

Inference
Avoid the common mistake of
converting an A-claim!
The fact that all X are Y does not
imply that all Y must be X.
E.g. all writers are human, but it is
not true that all humans are writers.

Categorical Claims & Inference

 Syllogism: An argument composed of two
statements or premises (the major and minor
premises), followed by a conclusion.
◦ For any given set of premises, if the conclusion
is guaranteed, the arguments is said to be
valid.
◦ If the conclusion is not guaranteed (at least
one instance in which the conclusion does not
follow), the argument is said to be invalid.
 BE CAREFUL
• Do not confuse TRUTH with VALIDITY!
• Check twice when using ONLY, ALL, SOME,
NONE, IF…THEN…

Categorical Syllogism
Construct a Venn Diagram to determine
the validity of the given argument.

All smiling cats talk.

The Cheshire Cat smiles.
Therefore, the Cheshire Cat talks.

VALID OR INVALID???

Practice
No one who can afford health insurance is
unemployed.
All politicians can afford health
insurance.
Therefore, no politician is unemployed.

VALID OR INVALID?????

Practice
Drawing inferences
 Elaine Rivera inherited her family’s gun
store, which she has operated on her own
for nine years.
Which inference(s) stand(s)?
A. She knows very well the difficulty in enforcing
gun control laws.
B. She knows very well which guns are most often
bought for criminal purposes.
C.She knows very well which guns often bought by
amateurs.
D.She knows very well which guns in her shop are
the easiest for amateurs to use.

Critical thinking
 Automation, the trademark of a modern economy, is essential to
maximizing a country's economic production while minimizing its
costs. Health care executives want to increase revenues while
reducing costs. Consequently, they propose significantly greater
automation of health care. Yet, this should be rejected. Radical
automation of health care would cause patients to lose trust in
the system as the health care they would receive would lack the
in-person care that studies show patients desire.
Which of the following expresses the main point of the argument?
 A) Health care should not be heavily automated
 B) Patients desire customized in-person care
 C) Trends in the general economy do not apply to the health
care industry
 D) Health care executives are becoming too greedy
 E) Due to economic forces, automation of health care is
Practice
eventually inevitable
 During the past 20 years, computer scientists focused increasingly on
starting and running successful businesses. However, since
businesses must be profitable, computer scientists must focus on
developing products that generate profit. Consequently, computer
science has lost its creative aspect.
Which of the following assumptions is most necessary in order for the
conclusion above to be drawn from the argument above?
 A) All computer programs must lack creativity in order to be well
received.
 B) Some computer scientists entirely disregarded creativity and chose
instead to pursue profit.
 C) A program cannot be both creative and profitable.
 D) Computer scientists are obsessed with the profitability of their
work.
 E) Non-profit institutions use large amounts of software.

Practice
 Fig.1, p. 301
◦ Negation
◦ Conjunction
◦ Disjunction
◦ Conditional
Common Truth-Functional
Argument Patterns:
Truth◦ In
table
depth p.320