currently a college kid struggling in my Logic class! My professor is great, and you are really helping me out. Next, I’ll be watching you truth trees video (if you have one)
Really good. Thank you! Wish I could have seen this video back in 1986 when taking my first class in Formal Logic! Wondering how to make logical notation more accessible to my kids and this might help!
Is there a puzzle book that anyone can recommend covering this material? I'm taking contemporary math, and I absolutely love this stuff. I'm just looking to keep covering the material in a fun way.
Hi Vanneya! Ok, so in Logic the word 'proposition' is a little fuzzy, and philosophers have struggled to give a clear sense of how we should use it. The problem is complicated by the metaphysical implications of thinking of "meaning" as something that exists independently of symbolic expressions (e.g., verbal expressions, linguistic expression, etc.). This is part of the debate between the Nominalism and Realism. For an excellent, and brief, history of the use of 'proposition' in Philosophy, I'd recommend the "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy" article you can find here: plato.stanford.edu/entries/propositions/
Technically, "Ray Bans are expensive." is a statement. The proposition would be the meaningful content OF the relation between the subject and predicate captured in the linguistic expression. But, for the purposes of introducing the concept of symbolizing simple and complex propositions in Propositional Logic (which is all I'm doing in these videos) we often oversimplify the distinction.
Hi ItsSchwifty! It can seem a bit esoteric, and you and Yudi have hit on one practical application in terms of learning the foundations of computer programing. Of course, when it was invented/discovered, Propositional Logic was of interest as a way of creating a universal language that avoided the weaknesses of natural language. If we could create a language that was devoid of idioms and arbitrary syntax, it could be used by anyone without fear of misunderstanding. But, that's only part of the story. Thanks for watching and commenting!
Hi Matthew! That is correct. There are different symbols used to designate logical operators. My videos follow the standard used in the Hurley editions of introductory Logic textbooks. Thanks for watching!
