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Chapter Objectives
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Following are the main learning objectives from the chapter. To help you coordinate your studies, these objectives are organized into sub-sections (9-1, 9-2, etc.) and listed with the relevant page numbers from the textbook.
Objective 9-1

Understand what truth-functional logic is.

Objective 9-2

Achieve familiarity with the basic elements of truth-functional logic.

  • Know what claim variables are and how they are symbolized.
  • Learn the precise (truth-table) definitions of negation, conjunction, disjunction, and the conditional.
  • Know the basic rules for constructing a truth table.
  • Understand how to represent all possible combinations of truth values for the individual sentences in a complex claim.
Objective 9-3

Be able to use truth-functional logic to represent and work with more complex sentences.

  • Keep the distinction between "if" and "only if" clear and in mind.
  • Understand what necessary and sufficient conditions are.
  • Feel comfortable translating such natural-language expressions as "unless" and "either" into exact logical symbols.
Objective 9-4

Understand how to represent and work with truth-functional arguments.

  • Know how a truth table can demonstrate when two claims are logically equivalent to one another.
  • Understand how a truth table displays an argument's validity or invalidity.
  • Attain mastery at using truth tables to evaluate an argument's validity.
  • Learn the short table method for checking validity.
Objective 9-5

Understand the method of deduction and be able to use it to determine an argument's validity.

  • Understand what a deduction is and how it proves its conclusion.
  • Learn when and under what conditions to use the Group I rules for elementary valid argument patterns.
  • Memorize all those Group I rules, including: modus ponens, modus tollens, the chain argument, disjunctive arguments, simplification, conjunction, addition, constructive dilemma, destructive dilemma.
Objective 9-6

Understand how to identify and work with truth-functional equivalences in the context of argument deductions.

  • Memorize all Group II rules for truth-functional equivalence, including: double negation, commutation, implication, contraposition, DeMorgan's law, exportations, distribution, and tautology.
  • Learn what a truth-functional equivalence is and how Group II rules are applied differently from Group I rules.
Objective 9-7

Understand what the method of conditional proof is and how it can be used to show the truth of conditional claims.

  • Learn the basic strategy by which a conditional proof constructs an if-then sentence.
  • Master the steps of a conditional proof.







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