Natural Deduction Proof with Mistake

96 Views Asked by At

For this proof there is a mistake. Find where it is.

$1. \space \lnot a\rightarrow b \qquad \qquad$ Premise.
$2. \space a\rightarrow c \qquad \qquad \space \space$ Premise.
$3. \lnot b \qquad \qquad \qquad \space$Preimse.
$\boxed {4. \lnot a \qquad \qquad \qquad assumption. \\5. \space b \qquad \qquad \qquad \space \rightarrow elimination \space(1,4). \\6. \space F \qquad \qquad \qquad \space \lnot \space elimination \space (3,5).} $
$7. \space a \qquad \qquad \qquad \space $F elimination $(6)$.
$8. \space c \qquad \qquad \qquad \space \rightarrow$ elimination $(2,7)$.

I said the mistake was on line $7$ because when concluding that the assumption $b$ being false than you can conclude anything you want, and what happened is the person concluded a, but this should still be the assumption box?

There is a mistake in this, and I think it is at $7$, but not sure. Any justification to my logic would be appreciated.

1

There are 1 best solutions below

2
On BEST ANSWER

We'd have to know the exact rules of the particular system that you are working with in order to answer your question.

Line 7 makes sense, at least logically: if $\neg a$ leads to a contradiction, then (at least in classical logic) you can conclude $a$.

However, normally you would call this $\neg$ Introduction or $\neg$ Elimination, and you'd point to the whole box (i.e. lines 4-6) to do this. And if the $F$ Elimination is defined as: From $F$ you can infer anything you want (and it looks like that's what is going on, given that the justification only points to line 6), then I am with you: whatever you infer from $F$ should still be within the box.

However, I am at the same time confused by the justification of line 6 ... in my system this would be called $F$ Introduction, rather than $\neg$ Elimination .... so again, it would help to know the exact definition of the rules of your system to really answer your question.