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1,  Elements of Reason. 1996
1A. Pattern Based Reason  1995
1B. Math Curriculum Notes 1996
2. Three Skills for Algebra  1995
3.
_Why_Slopes_&_More_Math_1995

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8.  Calculus Introduction 2005
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YOU are better than YOU think. Show yourself  how:

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 For better work & study skills, read logic chapters 1 to 5  in  Three Skills for Algebra. Sooner is better. Good luck.

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 Logic Mastery
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in reading and writing

Do not leave here without it -  Logic mastery  will develops critical thinking, improve reading and writing, and give a firmer base for work and studies at many levels. Good luck.

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Caution: Site advice is approximately correct, for some circumstances, not all. Site How-TOs are logically developed, but not tried and tested. That leaves room for thought and refinement..

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After logic  (a) continue reading Three Skills for Algebra, chapters 8 to 14  and do so alongside site area on solving linear2007 Equations ; or (b) see this calculus starter lesson and Volume 3, Why Slopes  & More Math, chapters 2 to 6;


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Chapter 22
The Contrapositive

Previous: Chapter 21, Occurrence Tables for Implications

  • PS: Use of the contrapositive form of an implication B IF A provides one form of indirect reason.
  • PS: The occurrence table in the earlier chapter 21 for B IF A will be used to explain or provide a justification for truth tables for material implications B IF A (or equivalently, IF A THEN B).

1  Introduction

In the chapter Implication Rules, we asked the following question: What can you say for sure about Aunt Jane when Tom does not go out to play and the following rule is never-disobeyed:

Each time Aunt Jane visits her nephew Tom's house, Tom goes out to play.

The answer was: NOT Aunt Jane visit. That is, when the previous rule holds, the following rule also holds

Each time her nephew Tom does not go out to play,
Aunt Jane does not visits Tom's house.
 

This is a contrapositive way or form of writing the original rule.

With the foregoing in mind, we can define the contrapositive way of writing other implication rules. The contrapositive form of writing the implication (or conditional statement) if A then B is if NOT B then NOT A. For example, the contrapositive way of writing
 

if Aunt Jane visits her nephew Tom's house
then Tom goes out to play
is

if NOT (Tom go out to play) then 
NOT (Aunt Jane visits her nephew Tom's house).
 

Language (or grammar) courses would prefer us to write

if (Tom does not go out to play) then 
(Aunt Jane does not visit her nephew Tom's house).

2  Equivalence of a one-way implication with its contrapositive

Note that a hint or preview of the contrapositive was provided by the discussion of the first logic puzzle (questions 4 and 5) in the chapter Implication Rules. (You might wish to revisit that puzzle.)

The occurrence table below is intended to show you that if an implication rule if A then B is true (never disobeyed) then the contrapositive rule if NOT B then NOT A is true (never disobeyed), and vice versa.

row A B if A 
then B
NOT B NOT A if NOT B
then 
NOT A
1 occurs occurs obeyed occurs

not

occurs

not

not

disobeyed

2 occurs occurs 
not
disobeyed occurs
 not
occurs disobeyed
3 occurs
 not
occurs not 
disobeyed
occurs 
not
occurs not 
disobeyed
4 occurs
 not
occurs
 not  
not
  disobeyed
occurs occurs obeyed
Table for the contrapositive assertion:
(A implies B)
if and only if
(NOT B implies NOT A).

Filling The Table

First we look at the four combinations of the occurrences of the situations A and B. When A occurs we have two possibilities for B. When A does not occur, we have two possibilities for B as well. This gives a total of four cases or rows and fills in the first three columns.

In the fourth column, headed by the rule if A then B for each combination of occurrences of A and B, we note if the rule is obeyed, disobeyed or not disobeyed.

Next, in the fifth and sixth columns headed by situations NOT B and NOT A, for each of the four combinations we note if these situations occur or not.

In the last column, we finally note if the rule if NOT B then NOT A is obeyed, disobeyed or not disobeyed. The entries in the last column depend on those in the fifth and sixth columns. The entries in the latter two in turn depend on those in the previous columns.

Answers to Two Questions

Now we can answer the questions: when are the two one-way implication rules (if A then B) and (if NOT B then NOT A) true? Remember we say these implication rules are true if each is never disobeyed. Both implications are true, that is, never disobeyed, when the situation row 2, A and NOT B, never occurs. Both implications are false when the situation in row 2, namely (A and NOT B), occurs. So we conclude from the table that the two rules are equivalent: each implies the other.1

1The rule if NOT B then NOT A is disobeyed if the NOT B occurs but NOT A does not. That is, it is disobeyed precisely when B does not occur, while A does. But the rule if A then B is disobeyed precisely in this situation where A occurs and B does not. This tells us that both rules are not disobeyed provided the situation where A occurs and B does not never occurs. So if one rule is true (never disobeyed), then so is the other.

Question

Recall that the rule if NOT B then NOT A is called the contrapositive way of saying if A then B. What is the contrapositive of the contrapositive? The answer is essentially the original implication: why? Hint: Replace NOT (NOT A) by A in the statement of the contrapositive of the contrapositive.

Next: Chapter 22, Part II, Vacuously True Implication Rules

 

www.whyslopes.com
Volume 1A, Pattern Based Reason

 Chapters 1 to 24

FOREWORD
Three Remarks

1 Introduction
2 Communication
3. Elements of Reason
4 Implication Rules
5. Deception
6 Chains of Reason
7 Longer Chains
For & From Consistency
8. Language Change
9 Next Chapters
10 Responsibility
11 Accidental Patterns
12 Knowledge Islands
13 Euclidean Logic
14 Deductive & Empirical 
     Views of Mathematics

15 Objectivity
16 Origin of Rules
and Patterns
17 Objective Ways

18. Waking up
19. Symbols  & Logic
20. Pronouns or Symbols
21. Truth Tables I.
22. Truth Tables II
22. Biconditional
22. Contrapositive
23. IF-THEN table
24. Indirect Reason Again

To reason often means to persuade someone of the need for an idea or action. That someone could be yourself. So be careful.

1A Logic Postscripts
- online only

+Proof by Absurdity alias proof by contradiction
+How the demand for consistency supports the law of the excluded middle
+Reality versus or with the aid of Imagination
+Links for reason, logic and crtical thinking
+Three Remarks
+History Lost or Missing

There is a difference between
knowing how to spend money,
and having money to spend.

There is likewise a difference
between mastering a skill
and having meeting a situation in which it applies.

 



 


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