Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Logic is Raping Me in Uncomfortable Places

Symbolizing Relational Predicate Logic:

Section 17

f) Doctors who respect all of their patients will be liked and respected by them all
(x)(__ __)

x is a doctor who respects all of his/her patients:

Dx (y)(Pyx Rxy)

x will be liked and respected by all of his/her patients:

(y)(Pyx (Ryx Lyx))

(x)((Dx (y)(Pyx Rxy)) (y)(Pyx (Ryx Lyx)))

(w)(Pwx (Rwx Lwx))

I know... what the fuck, right? Welcome to my life. And don't even get me started on the proofs. Sweet monkey crapfuck they confuse me:

Here's a sample proof from the review section:

(x)((Qx ν Wx) (Ex Rx)

(x)((Ex ν Rx) (Qx Wx)

/(x)(Qx Rx)

shouldn't be too hard: if you use biconditional exchange then the conclusion should easily translate into:

(Qx Rx) (Rx Qx)

and that's all well and good... but how the fuck do I get there from the two premises? That's what I want to know...

Meh, well... I'll ask Will for a hand when he gets off work - he's got one hell of a logical mind ( he's a future lawyer, so naturally his brain is well-suited for logic. He took a practice LSAT without studying anything last semester and got a 167 out of 180 on it).

And I still have tomorrow's class period and all of tomorrow afternoon to take care of it... hopefully it'll make a bit more sense.

Wish me luck blogosphere! If I don't pass this class I will be severely ticked off at the universe... I'm so close to being done with math!

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