BMSC101 Theory and Practice of Science

LOGIC ASSIGNMENT

This assignment is worth 15% of the total grade for the unit. A total of 50 marks is available in this
assignment; this will be scaled back 15% of the total mark for the unit. It is due for submission by
5pm Thursday May 19, lecture week 11. Legible handwritten answers are acceptable: write your
answers clearly. If you handwrite your answers, please scan your submission as a pdf and submit by
uploading to the online assignment box for the Logic Assignment on LEO. Ensure that you include
your working when you submit your answers as your working could earn partial marks. However,
please clearly separate working from your final answer.

Question One (worth 5 marks)

Translate the following English sentences into the symbolism of PC. Note: there may be more than
one accurate translation: any one of these will be acceptable. Worth one mark each.
(a) If Bill brings desert, Jane wont.
(b) Unless Tim rides to Mosman, he wont come to the party tonight.
(c) If there is neither a decline in unemployment nor a rise in interest rates, the economy will
grow.
(d) Jane will study Logic and Philosophy only if she wants to think deeply and does not want to
reason invalidly.
(e) There will be a recession and many will lose their jobs, if Chinese demand for minerals falls
and we dont foster foreign investment, unless we become world leaders in renewable
energy.

Question Two (worth 10 marks)

(a) Translate this argument; and (b) test it for validity using a truth table method (eg. the truthassignment/ short-cut method), (c) explaining how this works as a test for validity. Parts (a) and (b)
are worth 4 marks each and (c) worth 2.
If Science is wholly factual and all rational thinking is based on Science, then either good moral
thinking is scientific or moral thinking is not factual.
But good moral thinking is not scientific.
And moral thinking is factual.
So, not all rational thinking is based on Science.

Question Three (worth 15 marks)

(a) Translate this argument; and (b) test it for validity using the short-cut/ truth-assignment method;
and (c) explain how this method works as a test for validity. Parts (a) and (b) are worth 6 marks each
and part (c) is worth 3.
If the mind and brain are identical, then the brain is a physical entity only if the mind is a physical
entity. If the mind is a physical entity then feelings and how things look are material entities.
Feelings and how things look are not material entities but the brain is a physical entity. Therefore,
the mind and the brain are not identical.

Question Four (worth 5 marks)

Translate the following English sentences into QC categorical sentences. Each worth one mark.
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)

Cheviot sheep are beautiful.

Some good-looking scientists make good spouses.
No creative scientist is well paid or holds a management job.
Not all good-looking male models are shallow and manipulative.
Some good-looking scientists should not become shearers.

Question Five (worth 15 marks)

Draw whatever conclusions you can using Mills methods, supplementing Mills methods by common
sense when appropriate. Say which method(s) youre using, what alternatives you conclude from the
method itself, and how you narrow the conclusion down to a single alternative. Also say when Mills
methods lead to no definite conclusion.
Many footballers think that wearing unwashed socks from a victorious game causes a win in the next
game. When playing last weeks game I wore unwashed socks from a victorious game last season.
As usual this season, we lost.
(adapted from The American Journal of Preventive Medicine, September 2006)