Chapter 3

Elementary Logic

We take up the study of logic with two primary objectives in mind. First, we need to reach agreement as to the meaning of commonly used logical terms such as ifthen and for all. Unless we do so, our ability to communicate will be seriously impaired. Second, we realize that constructing a proof requires that we reason deductively from known information. Therefore, we want to analyze the logical basis for the deductive process in order to establish what constitutes a valid argument.

3.1 Statements and Truth

Questions to guide your reading of this section:

1.   What are the two undefined notions in the study of logic?

2.   What are the two possible truth values a statement may possess?

3.   What is meant by an open statement ...

Get A Transition to Mathematics with Proofs now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.