Seminar II

Last week we looked at the language of Propositional Logic and the method of truth tables. The following exercises are concerned with the formalization of arguments and the use of truth tables to assess their validity.

I. Translate the following declarative sentences into expressions of Propositional Logic:

1. It is not raining or it is not freezing.
2. If it is raining, then it is not freezing.
3. It is either raining or snowing, and it is freezing
4. If it is snowing, then it is either not raining or snowing.

II. Draw truth tables for each of expressions obtained for I above.

III. Provide translations of the following arguments as expressions of Propositional Logic.

1. Either wealth is an evil or wealth is a good; but wealth is not an evil; therefore wealth is a good.

2. If Francis Bacon had written Hamlet, then he'd have been a great writer. But Bacon did not write Hamlet, so he was not a great writer.

IV. Given the translations obtained for part III, use the method of truth tables to determine whether the above arguments are valid (i.e. correct) or not.