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StopLawying

Yes, that's correct.

lauren88

"A public forum cannot lose effectiveness as a tool of democracy if participants cannot discuss issues freely."

So the 'cannot' in the second part of the sentence should not be changed to 'can'?
I think it makes more sense to read 'A public forum cannot lose effectiveness as a tool of democracy if participants can discuss issues freely.", but I'm not sure which is the correct sentence in terms of demonstrating negation in logic. Just trying to clear up any confusion on my end, thanks!

DumbHollywoodActor

Very close. "Some participants can't discuss issues freely and public forums cannot lose effectiveness as a tool of democracy ". To negate a statement, essentially you want " Some [of the sufficient] is not [the necessary].” check out this lesson: http://7sage.com/lesson/how-to-negate-statements-in-english/

@lauren88 you were negating the sufficient condition instead of the necessary one.

StopLawying

@DumbHollywoodActor trying to understand what you did there.
If participants cannot discuss issues freely (this is the sufficient condition, notice the "if") THEN a public forum can lose effectiveness as a tool of democracy.
Negated statement: If participants cannot discuss issues freely ( suff condition remains the same) THEN a public forum cannot lose effectiveness as a tool of democracy.
This seems easy to me and if I'm wrong I'd appreciate if someone would correct me.

DumbHollywoodActor

@StopLawying I was directly addressing @lauren88 . @harleywferguson ’s translation, while not precise, is pretty close to a correct negation. The only distinction I made there was the addition of "some"

Original statement:A public forum can lose effectiveness as a tool of democracy if participants cannot discuss issues freely”

@lauren88 ’s statement: A public forum cannot lose effectiveness as a tool of democracy if participants can discuss issues freely

She’s negated both conditions. But that’s not how we negate statements in English.

Sorry I wasn’t clear.

StopLawying

@DumbHollywoodActor realized that after I wrote the comment, only thing I don't understand is why you added "some"here. Appreciate the help!

DumbHollywoodActor

@StopLawying I’d go back to the lesson I linked, but essentially it’s this: any negation to a universally conditional statement (If X then Y) becomes an intersection statement (X some /Y).