PHI 120 Lecture 2: PHI120 Unit 2 Notes
Document Summary
Formal logic a type of reasoning which analyzes and evaluates the abstract form of an argument: deductive: the strongest type of formal reasoning. Symbolic notation an artificial language composed of variables and operators used to translate informal ordinary language into formal arguments. Variable a symbolic notation in which an alphabetical letter symbolizes either a term (in term logic) or a statement (in propositional logic) Formal fallacies (non sequitur) a type of reasoning error in the structural form of an argument, in which the conclusion does not follow logically from the premises: aka draws a false conclusion from an accurate premise. William of ockham: early 1300s a. d, location: england, worldview: ancient, religion: roman catholicism, key text: summa logicae, key idea: modal logic. Modality a condition which qualifies a statement"s relationships to truth and falsehood: necessity, possibility, impossibility, and actuality. Necessity () the modal condition of a statement which must be true (and thus cannot possibly be false: ex: p1.