POL242Y1 Lecture Notes - Deductive Reasoning, Inductive Reasoning, Mathematical Logic
21 Nov 2012
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Lecture #1-an introduction to key concepts: normative and empirical analysis, deductive and inductive logic, theories concepts. Normative is prescriptive-what people should be doing. Empirical intends not to be descriptive and aims to factual claims about the world around us and demonstrate the truth of these claims based on evidence: e. g. Gays and lesbians are more likely than hetereos to support the other of marriage. Key difference: regardless of direction or weight of the available evidence, it seems possible that reasonable people can disagree about normative claims. Deductive logic proceeds from a set of premises to a conclusion. In a valid deductive argument, the premises logically entail the conclusion. What this means that it is logically impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion to be false: e. g. Conclusion from 1 +2) all whales are warm blooded: symbolic logic. For all x (x is human and all humans are mortal.
