Jun 16, 2004 23:46
Sometimes it takes ingenuity to find either an interpretation on which a sentence is true or an interpretation on which a sentence is false. Examine the sentence itself for guidelines, as we have just done. If it is a truth-functional compoud, then use your knowledge of the truth0conditions for that type of compound. If the sentence is universally quantified, then the sentence will be true if and only if the condition specified after the quantifier is satisfied by all members of the UD you choose. If the sentence is existentially quantified, then it will be true if and only if the condition specified after the quantifier is satisfied by at least one member of the UD. As you examine the components of the sentence, you may reason in the same way -- are they truth-functional compounds or quantified? Sometimes the desired interpretation cannot be obtained.
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the above is not interesting. under no interpretation is the sentence of predicate logic Pad true, where Pxy means x is interesting to y, a being the constant for predicate logic and d being the constant that picks out the singular term Donna, a girl who should not take philosophy courses because damnit she is just not smart enough.
this will forever be known at the summer philosophy ate my life.