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I am trying to solve the following problem from the book Reading, Writing, and Proving: A Closer Look at Mathematics 2nd ed. on page 44 Problem 4.20)b)


Decide whether statement $(3)$ is true if statements $(1)$ and $(2)$ are both true. Give reasons for your answers.

The three statements are:

$(1)$ If Susie goes to the ball in the red dress, I will stay home.

$(2)$ Susie went to the ball in the green dress.

$(3)$ I did not stay home.


The following is my attempted solution:


The universe for all variables is the set of all humans.

Let $B(x)$ denotes the statement: $x$ goes to the ball.

Let $R(x)$ denotes the statement: $x$ wears a red dress.

Let $S(x)$ denotes the statement: $x$ stays home.

Each of the statement $(1),(2)$ is expressed symbolically as:

\begin{align} &\exists x,(B(x) \wedge R(x)) \rightarrow \exists y,(y \ne x \wedge S(y)). &\text{(1)}\\ &B(x) \wedge \lnot R(x) &\text{(2)} \end{align}

Because the statement $(2)$ makes the statement $(1)$ vacuously true, $(3)$ is True or False and not both.


I am not sure whether my answer is correct or not.

Reference:

Daepp, U., & Gorkin, P. (2011). Reading, writing, and proving: A closer look at mathematics. In Reading, writing, and proving: A closer look at mathematics (2nd ed., p. 44). New York: Springer.

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    $\begingroup$ I would take exception to your "translation". Your (1) says "if there is anyone who goes to the ball and wears a red dress, then there is someone who is not that person and stays home." That is not what statement (1) says, which is about specific individuals. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 24, 2021 at 17:22
  • $\begingroup$ @ArturoMagidin In this case, ignoring both of my symbolic expressions, is it true that $(3)$ is true or false and not both? $\endgroup$
    – Approxiz
    Commented Mar 24, 2021 at 17:30
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    $\begingroup$ In my opinion, the truth of (3) cannot be determined from (1) and (2). (1) only states that if Susie goes to the ball in the red dress, then I will stay home. It does not state that this is the only situation in which I will stay home. Statement (2) says that the premise of the implication in (1) is false. So you have that $P\to Q$ is true, and that $P$ is false. that does not tell you whether $Q$ is true (so that (3) is false), or $Q$ is false (so that (3) is true). Both are consistent with the premises as given. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 24, 2021 at 17:33
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    $\begingroup$ The statement "(3) is true or false and not both" is an empty statement. It just asserts the law of the excluded middle; i.e., it is a tautology that has nothing to do with this problem. It's like answering this problem by saying "Well, either the grass is green, or it is not green, and not both." It doesn't say anything. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 24, 2021 at 17:35
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    $\begingroup$ No, it's still wrong. Statement (1) is not that "if there is someone that does blah", it's about a specific person. There should be no existential or universal quantifiers at all. If you want to use expressions with free variables, then you should be using constants to represent "Susie" and "me", not quantified variables. This should be done at the level of quantifier-free propositional calculus. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 24, 2021 at 17:47

1 Answer 1

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The third statement does not follow from the first two. If "Susie goes to the ball in the red dress" is A, and "I will stay home" is B, then of course $\bar{B}\implies \bar{A}$, where the bar denotes negation. But you cannot deny the hypothesis to conclude that $B$ is False, so $\bar{B}$ cannot be deduced from $\bar{A}$. The wording of this question makes it appear as if you should answer it with either "(3) is false" or "(3) is true", but I don't believe this is what the author intended.

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