Hi all,
https://7sage.com/blog/negate-statements-lsat
I was reading this blog post and wanted to ask a question. Would it be descriptively accurate to say the negation of a conditional statement -- if A, then B. vs. Some of A is not B. -- is a logical contradiciton? I'm asking because of the language used in the post. For example, if a question stimulus said "Some people believe if A then B. That is wrong, because Some a and not B." Would that be described as disproving the statement or that the author is showing a logical contradiction if the conditional is taken to be true?
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Yes, that's exactly right. "A -> B" and "Some A are not B" are contradictory statements. If you can show that one is true, then you have disproven the other. And if the author makes both claims in the argument, they have contradicted themselves. This is true for any statement that is the negation of another statement. In general, this would be claiming that Statement A and Not Statement A are both true.