The Basics of Reasoning

I am certain you will agree with me on the fact that we all have our unique way of reasoning. Our reasoning capabilities are different as can be seen from the way each member of a group in a discussion present out their view points. Some people are able to reason better than others and this is mostly out of being able to use their basic logic known as common sense, very well. Now what really does the word logic mean? Logic is a collection of problem solving techniques. However to be justifiably confident about the technique, we need to have an insight into how the technique works. The two main types of logic are: Propositional logic and Predicate logic. Proposition A proposition declares a statement to be either true (T) or false (F). So then a statement like: Goats and Fowls are animals, has the truth value T (true) whiles a statement like: -1 is an even number, has the truth value F (false) Predicate A predicate on the other hand, is a statement with variables in it. Most occurring predicates are mathematical statements. Such a statement would require known values for the variables before the truth value of the statement could be determined. So then a statement like: a + b=3 requires values a=1 and b=2 to have the truth value T(true) or a=2 and b=3 to have the truth value F(false) Logic is required in the proof of theorems, mathematical induction and a lot more which we are not going to discuss due to its complexity. But the bottom line remains to reason out a lot better, we need to be able to apply our logic in all situations. Have fun reasoning..