Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 47 — page 69: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION argument, whether it is true or false. We have to start thinking again—and this is where equivalence comes in- The three forms of argu- ment that we have considered here each have their own special application to scienti- fic method. And they are interconvertible. This means that if our data gives us an argument in one form, and that form is not the one which is most useful for our purpose, we can convert it into an equivalent form that does suit our purpose. You will probably have to do a certain amount of hard _ thinking now! I want you to see why it is that some forms are equivalent to others, be- cause therein lies the whole deductive basis of scientific research. Ready? When we say “If p, then g”’ we might just as well say “Either not-p or gq,” or ““Not both p and not-g.” Do you see that if it is true to say that q is implied by p, then either 68 not-p or q must be true, and that p and not-g cannot both be true? Perhaps you will better be able to see this equivalents if we set it out symbolically, so that you can take it in at a glance. We'll show the interconverti- bility of syllogisms, the major premisses of which are all equivalent to each other: PD2a% wpvg, v.49), P; ~ “Pp, PD, (note that by denying a nega- tion we make an affirmative. Thus, » »q means g. “Not not hot” means “‘hot.’’) See if you can make up examples for yourselves and express them in the different forms. It is quite easy, really. You could take the “Moon’’ syllogism to start with. Now we have covered, very lightly, most of what is in- volved in “‘traditional’’ logic. Next month we shall go on to some more modern ideas - and deal with relational argu- ments—all about loves and hates! conmiclooolks.comn