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Key Terms
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Antecedent  The term of a conditional claim that lies between the "if" and the "then." The proposition asserts that if the antecedent were the case, the consequent would then follow.
Biconditional  A proposition of the form "A if and only if B."
Categorical proposition  A proposition that is expressed in one of four forms: "All A is B," "No A is B," "Some A is B," of "Some A is not B."
Compound proposition  A proposition that contains any of the five logical connectives ("and," "or", "not, "ifÉthen," or "if and only if"). For example, "Either the cow is in the yard or that's a Hollywood prop."
Conditional claim  A proposition of the form "If A then B" or its variations.
Conditional claims  Propositions of the form "If A then B" or "B only if A."
Conjunct  One member of a conjunction. Both A and B are conjuncts of the claim "A and B."
Conjunctions  Propositions that can be expressed in the form "A and B."
Consequent  The term of a conditional claim that follows the "then" and is said to be the effect that follows if the antecedent condition were true.
Contingent claims  Propositions that are not necessarily true or false, but are dependent on what is going on in the world to determine the truth-value. This would include claims for which the truth-value is unknown.
Contradictions  Propositions that are always false or false by definition.
De Morgan's Laws  These are two special forms of negations: "Not both A and B" and "Neither A nor B." With the "Not both" construction, one of the choices is being denied--either the first option or the second one. With a "neither... nor..." construction, both options are being denied, the first choice and the second one.
Disjunct  One member of a disjunction. Both A and B are disjuncts of the claim "Either A or B."
Disjunctions  Propositions that can be expressed in the form "Either A or B."
Equivalence  Propositions of the form "A if and only if B."
Exportation  This rule of replacment allows you to restructure a conditional claim with a conjunction in the antecedent. The second conjunct in the antecedent is exported to the consequent where it starts a new chain: "If A and B then C" is equivalent to "If A then, if B then C."
Logical connectives  The terms that make a proposition compound. These are: "and," "either/or," "if/then," "if and only if," and "not").
Material Implication  One of the rules of replacement. This asserts "If A then B" is equivalent to "Either not A or B."
Necessary  "P is necessary for Q" asserts that Q won't happen without P. That is, if you don't have P, you won't have Q. So if you have Q, you must also have P.
Negations  Propositions that can be expressed in the form "Not A."
Only  The term "only" is used to restrict and, thus, functions as an exclusion. "Only A is B" is equivalent to "If not A then not B" which is equivalent to "All B is A."
Only if claims  Propositions that can be expressed in the form "A only if B," which are equivalent to "All A is B." "If A then B" and "If not B then not A."
Particular  Particular propositions are not universal. They assert or deny a characteristic applies to at least one but not all the members of the class in question. These are I and O claims ("Some A is B" and "Some A is not B").
Proposition  A proposition, or claim, asserts something is or is not the case (e.g., "This is Tuesday," "All cats are animals," "Some cats are not tigers," etc.).
Quality  The quality of a proposition is either positive (A and I claims) or negative (E and O claims). The quality answers the question "Are you affirming or negating?"
Quantity  The quantity of a proposition is either universal (A and E claims) or particular (I and O claims). Quantity answers the question "How many?"
Simple proposition  A simple proposition is one that is at the atomic level--that is, it does not contains any of the logical connectives "and," "or", "not, "ifÉthen," or "if and only if." For example, "Some dogs are gentle animals."
Sufficient  "P is sufficient for Q" asserts that Q will happen whenever P occurs. In other words, "P is sufficient for Q" is equivalent to "If P then Q."
Tautologies  Propositions that are always true or true by definition.
The only  "The only P is Q" is equivalent to "Only Q is P."
Translation  That which results from symbolizing a proposition using logical connectives and variables.
Transposition  One of the rules of replacement. This asserts "If A then B" is equivalent to "If not B then not A." In other words you can transpose the antecedent and consequent--but both must then change to their opposites (positive-negative and vice versa).
Universal  Universal propositions are "all or nothing" claims (A and E claims). They can be expressed "All A is B" or "No A is B."
Unless  Propositions of the form "P unless Q" can be expressed as either a conditional claim or a disjunction. As a conditional claim it can be written, "If not Q then P."
Variable  A letter of the alphabet used to represent a proposition. For example, "If Joe runs the marathon, he'll be tired tonight." Variable "J" and "T" could be used to symbolize the proposition as: J → T.







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