Junaid Asghar

BSCS (UET Lahore)

MSCS (UMT Lahore)

Lecturer
Computer Sciences and IT Department
The University of Lahore

ARGUMENTS
Lecture # 05
In Today’s Lecture
 Logic:
Logic rules and principles is to distinguish an
argument is valid or invalid.

 Examples of Arguments:
 You have a intuitive idea about argument. When you
are talking with your friend you give argument.
 Sometimes you say to your friend “what are you saying
has no logic” it means you are saying that your
argument is not valid.
 Lawyer in court during the trail to defend client, give
argument. Judge decision is also based on lawyer
argument if its argument is valid then decision will be in
his favor.
Example:
A strict teacher keeps me awake.
I stay awake in discrete structure class.
Therefore, my discrete structure teacher is
strict.

 1st two statements we are

declaring(premises) on this basis 3rd line is
giving conclusion.

 The argument presenting is, its valid or not?

ARGUMENT:
 An argument is a list of statements called premises (or
assumptions or hypotheses) followed by a statement
called the conclusion.
P1 Premise
P2 Premise
P3 Premise
. . . . .. . . . .
Pn Premise
______________
C Conclusion

 NOTE :
 The symbol  read “therefore,” is normally placed just
before the conclusion.
 VALID ARGUMENT
 An argument is valid if the conclusion is true
when all the premises are true.

 Alternatively, an argument is valid if

conjunction of its premises imply conclusion.

That is (P1 P2  P3  . . .  Pn)  C is a

tautology.

 In that case if argument becomes tautology

then we say the argument is valid.
p implies q is mostly true.

p implies q is false whenever

p is true and q is false

That is

P true, q false then p  q is false

Note:

 If all the premise is true then the conjunction

of all the premise is also true. And if the
conclusion becomes also true, then the whole
implication becomes true.

Therefore = thus = so that

 INVALID ARGUMENT
 An argument is invalid if the conclusion is false
when all the premises are true.

 Alternatively, an argument is invalid if conjunction

of its premises does not imply conclusion.

 Validity of argument:
 When our premises conjunction is false, and
conclusion is whatever true or false, the argument
is valid
 When our premises conjunction is true, and
conclusion is false, then we say argument is invalid.
Argument Form

 If the premises and the conclusion

are statement forms
instead of statements,
then the resulting form is called
argument form.
 Ex: If p then q;

p;
 q.

9
 Checking the validity of an
argument form
1) Construct truth table for the premises
and the conclusion;
2) Find the rows in which all the premises
are true (critical rows);
3) a. If in each critical row the conclusion
is
true
then the argument form is valid;
b. If there is a row in which conclusion
is
false
then the argument form is invalid.
10
EXAMPLE:
 Show that the following argument form is
valid:

pq premise

p premise

q conclusion
 premis conclusion
es

p q pq p q
T T T T T critical row
T F F T F
F T T F T
F F T F F
• To validity we will not analyze the whole table.
• We will analyze those rows where in premise we
have T
value, and if corresponding conclusion also have T
value,
then we say it’s a valid argument.
EXAMPLE OF INVALID ARGUMENT
 Show that the following argument form is
invalid:

pq premise

q premise

p conclusion
 premis conclusion
es

p q p q p
q
T T T T T
critical row
T F F F T
F T T T F
F F T F F
This argument is not valid.
 EXERCISE
 Use truth table to determine the argument
form

pq premise
p  ~q premise
p  r premise
r conclusion

 Is valid or invalid?
 premises
conclusi
on

p q r p p pr r
q ~q
T T T T F T T
T T F T F F F
T F T T T T T
T F F T T F F critical
F T T T T T T rows
F T F T T T F
The argument is
F F T F T T T not valid because
F F F F T T F all corresponding
values in
conclusion are not
T
 WORD PROBLEM
 If Tariq is not on team A, then Hameed is on team B.
If Hameed is not on team B, then Tariq is on team A.
Tariq is not on team A or Hameed is not on team B.
 SOLUTION:
Let
t = Tariq is on team A
h = Hameed is on team B
Then the argument is
~th
~ht
~t~h
 t h ~t  h ~h  t ~t ~h
T T T T F
T F T T T
F T T T T
F F F F T

Argument is invalid. Because there are three critical rows

( Remember that the critical rows are those rows where
the premises have truth value T) and in the first critical
row conclusion has truth value F. (Also remember that
we say an argument is valid if in all critical rows
conclusion has truth value T)
 EXERCISE
 If at least one of these two numbers is divisible by 6,
then the product of these two numbers is divisible by 6.
Neither of these two numbers is divisible by 6.
 The product of these two numbers is not divisible
by 6.
 SOLUTION:
Let p = at least one of these two numbers is divisible
by 6.
q =product of these two numbers is divisible by 6.
Then the argument become in these symbols
pq
~p
 ~q
 We will made the truth table for premises and
conclusion as given below:

p q p  q ~p ~q
T T T F F
T F F F T
F T T T F
F F T T T

 The Argument is invalid.

 EXERCISE
 If I got an Eid bonus, I’ll buy a stereo.
If I sell my motorcycle, I’ll buy a stereo.
 If I get an Eid bonus or I sell my
motorcycle, then I’ll buy a stereo.
SOLUTION:
Let
e = I got an Eid bonus
s = I’ll buy a stereo
m = I sell my motorcycle
 The argument is
es
ms
 ems
e s m e s m s e e  m s
m
T T T T T T T
T T F T T T T
T F T F F T F
T F F F T T F
F T T T T T T
F T F T T F T
F F T T F T F
F F F T T F T
The argument is valid. Because there are
five critical rows
REMEMBER:
 ( Remember that the critical rows are those
rows where the premises have truth value T)
and in all critical row conclusion has truth
value T. (Also remember that we say an
argument is valid if in all critical rows
conclusion has truth value T)
 EXERCISE
 A strict teacher keeps me awake. I stay awake in
Discrete Mathematics class. Therefore, my
Discrete Mathematics teacher is strict.
Solution:
t: my teacher is strict
a: I stay awake
m: I am in Discrete Mathematics class
 The argument to be tested is
t  a,
am
Therefore mt
t a m ta am mt
T T T T T T
T T F T F F
T F T F F T
T F F F F F
F T T T T F
F T F T F F
F F T T F F
F F F T F F
Argument is not valid.