law of implication

2.5k Views Asked by At

I'm trying to follow the solution of an exercise that asks to use rules of inference to show that something is true but I don't know how to go from step 2 to step 3:

Step 1 $\quad \forall x((\lnot P(x) \land Q(x)) \rightarrow R(x))$ (given)

Step 2 (Universal Instantiation) $\quad (\lnot P(a) \land Q(a)) \rightarrow R(a)$

Step 3 $\quad\lnot R(a) \lor \lnot(\lnot P(a) \land Q(a))$ (law of implication)

Any details on how the law of implication was used on step 3 would be appreciated. Thanks!

1

There are 1 best solutions below

0
On BEST ANSWER

First, the equivalence of an implication with its contrapositive is used.

$$ (\lnot P(a) \land Q(a)) \rightarrow R(a) \equiv \lnot R(a) \rightarrow \lnot(\lnot P(a) \land Q(a))$$

Then we can use the law of implication: $$\lnot R(a) \rightarrow \lnot(\lnot P(a) \land Q(a))\equiv \lnot \lnot R(a) \lor \lnot(\lnot P(a) \land Q(a)) \\ \\ \equiv R(a) \lor \lnot(\lnot P(a) \land Q(a))$$

So the third line is in error: we need $R(a)$ and not $\lnot R(a)$ to obtain the disjunction in $(3)$.