From: Louis Newstrom (louisnews@comcast.net)
Date: Fri Jun 14 2002 - 11:45:51 MDT
From: "Lee Corbin" <lcorbin@tsoft.com>
> I don't know of any rigorous guidelines to suggest to
> one that an apparently completely rational argument
> may have a hole in it.
I do. It's called logic. Specifically, "syllogisms".
Follow these steps:
1 - Rewrite the claim in steps called syllogisms. ANY claim can be
re-written in proper syllogism form.
2 - Each syllogism will be one of 256 forms. Only 15 are valid. If any
other forms besides these 15 are used, then the proof is invalid and should
be rejected.
3 - Syllogisms only conclude that the conclusion is true if the first two
propositions are true. If any proposition is false, then the proof proves
nothing, and should be rejected.
4. - If you didn't reject the proof in steps 2 or 3, then it is a valid
proof, that proves a conclusion is true.
These steps have been used for 23 centuries to check proofs.
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