The author uses the word "immediacy" (line 39) most likely in order to express

RKnight on July 15, 2020

Help with diagramming

If I can diagram the passage correctly, the logic rules are easy to apply. I am having difficulty correctly diagramming the passage. Is there specific help I can get on that, or practice options? For example: one of the practice questions states "tanya would refrain from littering if everyone else refrained from littering". I know If intros a sufficient condition, but I would write it ERF -> TRL but when I watch the lesson it's ERF -> T not L. I am lost on when to use not.

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shunhe on July 16, 2020

Hi @Rknight,

Thanks for the question! So you can use “not” in whatever way makes sense to you, as long as the meaning is still there. So for example, you wrote

ERF —> TRL

As in if everyone else refrained from littering, then Tanya would refrain from littering.

And the lesson diagrammed it as

ERF —> ~TL

Which is just saying if everyone else refrained from littering, then Tanya would not litter. Which is the same thing as saying that Tanya would refrain from littering, they mean the same thing. It’s not too important whether you write out “not” here as long as you keep your meanings consistent; you should be able to solve the problem with the way you diagrammed it as well. You could also diagram it, for example (and this would be more consistent)

~EL —> ~TL

Which would basically be that if everyone else does not litter (refrains from littering), then Tanya does not litter (refrains from littering). Personally, that’s probably how I would’ve diagrammed it since it makes the most sense in my head, and avoids double negatives if we have to negate by taking the contrapositive (because then we have to say “not refrain,” which is just more confusing). Ideally, when choosing whether to use “not,” avoid double negative constructions, but otherwise do whatever works best for you.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.