Questions tagged [logic]
Questions pertaining to logical constructs
196
questions
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Meaning of an And Phrase followed by an Or Phrase
A sentence begins like "If A and B or C then ..." does that mean that A must always be true and one of B or C must be true for the following to happen? Or can just C be true? In ...
0
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1answer
46 views
Use of recurring words - 'somebody who' [closed]
Think of somebody who takes you for granted, somebody who is treating you with disgust, somebody who thinks about you as a thing to use.
Is that sentence well written? I mean the recurring part '...
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0answers
52 views
Ambiguous question
I came across a whatsapp message a few years ago about a question framed in a manner that no matter what the person answers they will be considered that thing they want to deny being. Unfortunately, I ...
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1answer
48 views
Evaluating a sequence of logical clauses that are chained using “and” and “or”
How do you evaluate a logical statement that has multiple condition clauses "If A or B and C"?
From method 1 & 2 below, which is the correct/common interpretation?
If A is true, or both ...
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1answer
25 views
Does “Either must die at the hand of the other” imply both that A can only be killed by B and that B can only be killed by A?
The prophesy made by Professor Trelawney about Harry Potter includes the phrase "Either must die at the hand of the other", speaking of Harry and Lord Voldemort.
Does this mean that both ...
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0answers
20 views
“Between each” and Other Constructions with Fewer than Two Objects
Page 112 of Garner's fourth edition reads
✳Between each and Other Constructions with Fewer than Two Objects
This phrasing is a peculiar brand of illogic, ✳between each
house/speech,instead of, ...
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1answer
25 views
What is a “contingent argument” (outside of law or theology)?
I heard John McWhorter use this term and as best I could tell he was referring to an argument based on a something existing in the world rather than on logic. E.g., I feel offended, so therefore what ...
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3answers
57 views
How to ask a question and correctly tell its logic in the following case?
My question is about logic in English. (In my native language (it's Russian) the logical words used in this case may differ, I'm not sure.)
Available variants of the question are:
How to list all ...
2
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4answers
66 views
Phrase that encapsulates flawed logic in making the excuse “everyone does it”?
I heard someone use a phrase that I thought perfectly captures this but can't remember it. It was used in a situation where what someone did was clearly wrong, but they pointed out that everyone else ...
0
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1answer
40 views
many a: distributive idiom
According to Garner's fourth edition, there is many a person is the correct verbal agreement because many a is a distributive rather than aggregate idiom.
What does the author refer to by the ...
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2answers
76 views
Is there any single word in English to represent domain of “logic and science” together?
Is there any single word in English to represent domain of "logic and science" together?
Background
Some of my friends are going to start an online movement whose main purpose would be ...
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48 views
Grammatical Rules of Construction or Logic to Resolve Some Seemingly Contradictory Legislation
One of the things attorneys, such as myself, do often is argue over the meaning of a statute. Often this comes down to grammatical arguments about the location of commas, the use of conjunctions, etc. ...
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2answers
68 views
Why is the clause “They filled me in on all the latest news from Cambridge” correct?
Why is it not like the following:
They filled the latest news from Cambridge in me.
2
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1answer
54 views
Is there a word in logic, or science, that means getting the right conclusion from the wrong set of presumptions?
Is there a word in logic, or science, that means getting the right conclusion from the wrong set of presumptions? Or alternatively, something is correct, but the explanation of why is incorrect. Is ...
1
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1answer
53 views
Is there a word to describe a plausible but incorrect explanation? [duplicate]
I'm thinking of something where somebody (with no malicious intention) offers a very plausible and scientific-sounding explanation (not a theory but something presented as a series of facts) such that ...
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1answer
34 views
How “No accident is too trivial to ignore” means “Every accident is serious enough to pay attention to it”?
From this answer,
"No accident is too trivial to ignore"" means
Every accident is serious enough to pay attention to it.
This isn't math class, but pls can you show all work and steps? How 1 turns ...
-1
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1answer
62 views
Can (or should) “prevalent” be gradable? [closed]
Well, that's all. Can it?
Is it not illogical to say that something is "more prevalent"? Is "prevalent" not, by definition, superlative? Is it not like saying that something is "more best"?
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2answers
109 views
“No accident is too severe to ignore” vs “No accident is too trivial to ignore”
etymology - How does a word come to have two completely opposite meanings? - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange
specifically with the case of words taking on their opposite meanings, a ...
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1answer
64 views
What or which before plural noun
Is "What things are safe?", instead of "which things are safe?", grammatical and good usage? Here is an example in a (simplified) context:
In this formula, we use predicate Psafe, ...
0
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1answer
219 views
What is the opposite of the word “Not”? [closed]
We are working on a technical manual and we'd like to have a word that is opposite to the word "Not".
Generally, the accepted way to address this is to omit the word itself. In this case however, it ...
0
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1answer
60 views
Word for logical AND-or-OR-ness property
Suppose I have a set of criteria used in digital searches (such as "year is earlier than 1900", "name begins with S"). The user can choose whether to search for records matching ALL of their criteria, ...
3
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2answers
112 views
Is the sentence logical?
It had been sunny for a week when the storm broke out.
Is this sentence logically valid and sound?
If I think of it, it looks like it means when the storm broke out, it was sunny. There couldn't be ...
1
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2answers
131 views
Do all definitions have some sort of circular reasoning? [closed]
Say you wrote a simple sentence like, the fox jumped over the fence. You could replace the subject (fox), with its definition. For example, A carnivore, of the dog family (especially those of the ...
1
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1answer
52 views
A footnote refers to the wrong document - what is a word to describe this kind of mistake?
Well, the title question says it all I think:
A footnote refers to the wrong document - what is a word to describe this kind of mistake?
Words like "discrepancy", "incongruence", "fallacy", or ...
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1answer
826 views
Is the usage “all … are not” always the same as “not all … are”?
Is it true that both the following lines are identical in English?
All dogs are animals. All animals are not dogs.
All dogs are animals. Not all animals are dogs.
In some other languages, (1) and (2)...
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0answers
112 views
without X and without Y
I want to express absence of 2 things. For example:
It was a pretty day without rain and without snow.
Logically: (not X) and (not Y), which is equivalent to: not (X or Y)
Therefore, I guess the ...
0
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1answer
47 views
What's it called when you use a hypothetical claim to disprove another claim?
So what I'm asking is probably niche, but it's one of those things that I'm not sure what to call it by, so apologies if the title seems off.
I think the best way to describe it is to use an example: ...
0
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1answer
111 views
What is the word for knowing you are in someone's thoughts?
"Knowing you are in someone's thoughts" - is there a word for it?
The concept comes from Epistemic logic and the psychology of wellbeing depending on knowing someone's else thinking of you.
0
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1answer
100 views
Using argumentum ad verecundiam as a verb
When referring to logical fallacies in code mixed sentences, I typically see them used as nouns:
"Of course I'm cool, my mom says I'm cool!"
"That appears to be an argumentum ad verecundiam."
If ...
2
votes
1answer
79 views
What is the difference between these two sentences? “If A is true, then B is true” and “Since A is true, B is true”
Consider the following two sentences:
If A is true, then we can conclude that B is true.
Since A is true, we can conclude that B is true.
I have two questions:
What is the difference ...
0
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2answers
62 views
What is the average reader most likely to guess that “If they don’t have A or both B and C” was exactly intended to mean?
There is a sentence saying "If they don't have A or both B and C,"
I interpret it means "If they have no A or if they have neither B or C". Am I correct?
The condition seems to me that having only B ...
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3answers
211 views
Trying to understand the logic behind this sentence: The lecture will be given if at least ten people are there
I am not really sure whether my question is suitable here, but I will give it a try.
Consider the following sentence:
The lecture will be given if at least ten people are there.
From the perspective ...
2
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2answers
51 views
Logical implications of 'than they would be if …'? [closed]
Given:
Proof-of-concept technologies, although important, are less valuable
than they would be if they were supported by careful experiments that
identify key attributes of the design or ...
1
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0answers
108 views
Is ‘the reason why’ somehow objectionable?
It has just come to my attention that some consider ‘the reason why’
ungrammatical or otherwise unfortunate. David Crystal mentions it in
his introduction to Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English ...
14
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6answers
3k views
Term for the “extreme-extension” version of a straw man fallacy?
Take the most obvious, unimpeachable statement imaginable:
Drinking water is good for humans.
I am looking for a word that describes the action of taking the argument, applying some unreasonable ...
3
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1answer
224 views
Is there a contraction for non-exclusive or?
I find that often, in technical writing, I want to specify that or is non-exclusive: or ≠ xor; or = and/or.
(Stylistically, "and or" is terrible and gets tiresome quickly;)
As an example of the type ...
0
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1answer
651 views
“following conditions exists” or “all of the following conditions exist”
In a technical description I've written "When the following conditions exist" and listed Condition 1 to N. When I said "When the following conditions exist", I meant "all the following" conditions ...
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2answers
294 views
How would one interpret: “must not exceed X and Y” vs “must not exceed X and not exceed Y” [closed]
EDIT/NOTE: This phrase is from a legal document, so rules of plain language / literal interpretation are assumed to apply, so please refrain from assuming what you believe was intended by the writer. ...
1
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1answer
123 views
Which should be the correct word in the given pragraph: Hermeneutics or Semantics?
While reading through the book on logics. I came across this paragraph.
Paragraph is as-is from the book: Outline of Logic (Schaum's)
At this point we give a rigorous formulation of the ...
1
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1answer
782 views
Difference between declarative sentence and proposition statement?
Oxford dictionary defines declarative sentence as :
"A statement in the form of a declaration."
and Proposition as:
"A statement or assertion that expresses a judgement or opinion".
What is the ...
1
vote
1answer
104 views
Term for an argument that is only valid because of another view that the person you're arguing against holds, that you disagree with
Couldn't think of a better title.
But this is is the gist: an argument that is only valid because of another view that the person you're arguing against holds, that you disagree with.
You said cats ...
9
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10answers
6k views
Single word to replace “allowed to be missing”
I want to express my knowledge about the presence of absence of something. My knowledge is divided into three different cases:
I know that the thing doesn't exist.
I don't know whether the thing ...
12
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10answers
2k views
Understanding the purported ambiguity in “Every boy didn’t run”
I am a computer science professional.
I am reading the book Natural Language Understanding by James Allen where he writes:
“Every boy didn’t run” which is ambiguous between the read...
0
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2answers
6k views
What is the logic behind “better suited” [closed]
I'm confused about the expression "better suited." I'm editing a piece that addresses how to write a particular type of article for a particular website. Logically, which is better:
...
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6answers
449 views
Logical term for when an object is the same thing as itself
I'm trying to see if there's a word for this in English and having some problems making a definition in my program.
I want to say that two objects are not only have identical properties/values but ...
0
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2answers
189 views
Which is right: “The cream cheese comes with the bagel” or “The bagel comes with the cream cheese”?
My friends and I got into an argument about which sentence is right:
"The cream cheese comes with the bagel" or "The bagel comes with the cream cheese".
What is the exact meaning of each of these ...
0
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1answer
3k views
'all the following are' OR 'the following are all' [duplicate]
Which of these is grammatically correct?
"The statement is incorrect when the following are all true:"
"The statement is incorrect when all the following are true:"
1
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3answers
73 views
Is there a word (or shorter/clearer phrase) for “incorrect implication/suggestion”? [closed]
Example sentences:
I don't drink bleach very often.
Why does one plus one equal three?
The first sentence seems to suggest that I do drink bleach occasionally, even though from a strictly logically ...
1
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1answer
409 views
Word that serves the purpose of “xor?” [closed]
In programming we have the term "xor gate" for when one of two things is allowed, but not both. That is, P XOR Q is true if and only if exactly one of them is true, false otherwise.
But English is ...
1
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3answers
827 views
Is 'nothing is impossible' and 'anything is possible' the same?
I wonder if these two sentences mean exactly the same, or is there any difference?
