What is the meaning of validity, truth, and soundness as they relate to the area of logical syllogisms?
Google soundness in logic
Check the second entry, it should answer your question.
Roger means this website:
http://philosophy.lander.edu/logic/tvs.html
=)
Thank you for supplying the link Writeacher, that is the reference I had in mind.
It gave a simpler and clearer explanation than I could've given.
Validity and soundness apply to deductive arguments. Inductive arguments don't have any specific argument forms, so we judge their efficacy by something called inductive probability. Truth applies to both argument types, but there is a slight difference. For deductive arguments if the premises are true and the argument form valid, then the argument is sound and the conclusion follows necessarily. For inductive arguments the premises may be true, but the conclusion never follows necessarily. It is based on probability entirely. This is why inductive arguments are termed 'weak arguments' by some authors: there is no way to guarantee the conclusions. Deductive arguments are called strong arguments because their conclusions can be guaranteed with certain condions, i.e. soundness.
However, the real problem is nearly always verifying the truthfulnes of the premises. This difficulty always exists for both argument types. We should also note that there is a strong interplay between the two argument types in practice too. We use induction in forming hypothesis, and then we use deduction to see what conclusions follow necessarily from the hypotheses to determine if it should be accepted or rejected.
This is a good deal more than the poster asked, but I thought I'd show why it's important to distinguish the terms. I Hope this helps.
What is the meaning of validity, truth, and soundness as they relate to the area of logical syllogisms
In the area of logical syllogisms, validity, truth, and soundness are important concepts.
Validity refers to the logical structure or form of an argument. An argument is valid if its conclusion logically follows from its premises. In other words, if the premises of an argument are true, then the conclusion must also be true. Validity is determined by the structure, not the content, of the argument.
Truth, on the other hand, refers to the actual factual accuracy of the premises and conclusion of an argument. A proposition or statement is true if it corresponds to reality or facts. In evaluating the truth of an argument, we assess whether the premises are true, and if so, whether the conclusion is also true.
Soundness combines both validity and truth. An argument is sound if it is valid and all of its premises are true. In other words, a sound argument is both logically valid and the information it presents is factually accurate. A sound argument guarantees the truth of its conclusion.
It's important to note that soundness can only be determined when we have information about the truth value of the premises. However, even if an argument is valid, it may not be sound if its premises are not true.
In summary, validity assesses the logical structure of an argument, truth evaluates the factual accuracy of its premises and conclusion, and soundness combines both validity and truth to determine the overall strength and reliability of the argument.