(LCR) Truth-Functional Operator Issues

Friday's quiz revealed, for some of you, a residual weakness in your grasp of truth-functional operators. To begin with, remember that when translating an argument into standard form or symbolizing it, identifying the argument's intended conclusion is fundamental. If you get that wrong, fuggetaboutit. Once you identify the conclusion correctly, pay close attention to the operators: in logic as in English, 'and,' 'if-then,' 'or,' 'not,' and 'if and only if' mean different things (which is why we symbolize them differently). Because natural language is very flexible, you have to examine each statement carefully to determine which operator is operative.