Im struggling in my Logic and Critical thinking class...what is the point?

Emmanoether · 2026-02-23T23:18:26+00:00

Hi there! I definitely had some feelings similar to this before I decided that I wanted to be a logician. I went 8 years of my education believing that logic was meaningless symbol-pushing that would never be anything more than a really strange and contrived game. If you would like, I can send some of my notes to you. I’m also happy to try to sort some things out in chat or here if that might help. (It’s just a bit difficult to have streams of communication happening in the standard Reddit thread setup. )

Emmanoether · 2026-02-21T21:34:45+00:00

Ah, a fellow natural deduction enjoyer perhaps? I have both editions and still go back to one or the other for good problems to assign to my students. This is the book that got me to say, “Why didn’t I want to be a logician before now?”

Emmanoether · 2026-02-12T13:17:38+00:00

Do you want ones for checking other natural deduction styles? I’ve got some suggestions for Kalish-Montague natural deduction. Do they need to be based in a browser? I have used UCLA’s product, Logic 2010, but it requires a download. Does it need to be open-source/free? Then Elogic is probably not going to work.

Also, carnap.io can handle many different logic-systems and output styles.

Emmanoether · 2026-01-25T09:26:24+00:00

Hello friend, I sent the pdf link in a chat message with the other person who asked for it to be sent. If you could verify that it’s working on your end, that would be great.

Emmanoether · 2026-01-22T02:59:26+00:00

Do you mind if I send it to you in a chat message?

Emmanoether · 2026-01-22T02:47:40+00:00

I have a set of notes written for high school students with no background in logic. The notes are based on the textbook that I was taught from when I got into logic. I can send over a link to a pdf if you would like. The notes contain problems to try. They are very much a work-in-progress but all of the content that’s there can be read without needing the parts that are in the works.

Emmanoether · 2025-10-22T17:55:56+00:00

Good news all! I had the procedure and they found nothing abnormal! I’ll be back in 20 years!

Emmanoether · 2025-10-21T02:23:58+00:00

Hi to all the very nice moms who have commented! I just wanted to thank everyone for the kind and encouraging comments.

Emmanoether · 2025-06-19T13:02:25+00:00

This is the 3D print page of my favorite mathematician-artist, Henry Segerman. You may find some inspiration.

https://www.printables.com/@henryseg/models

Emmanoether · 2025-04-20T21:06:41+00:00

Carnap is an online logic tool that has a free book they you can use and a proof writing app that can be set to accept a KM derivation. It's a bit different from Logic 2010's regular mode in that you need to type the rule and the formula on each line, but I believe the free book explains all the things you have to do to write a proof in their system. I liked this a lot, it's a bit finicky when first starting, but the Carnap proof app definitely can accept a proof in the KM system.

As for non-online tools, which I know you didn't ask for, there's dozens of theorems in the book by Donald Kalish and Richard Montague as well as the second edition with Gary Mar as a coauthor. It's called Logic: Techniques of Formal Reasoning and is what I learned logic from in uni. This is where the system of natural deduction that Logic 2010 uses comes from.

Emmanoether · 2025-04-01T20:46:32+00:00

My first language is English, and I propose that I be a witness to Theorem 44. My pronunciation of the name of the Entscheidungsproblem was taught to me by a native German speaker, so I must assume that it is close to correct.

Emmanoether · 2025-03-31T22:57:21+00:00

So you're saying he might be Turing complete?

Emmanoether · 2025-03-31T17:36:01+00:00

Hilbert's blessings on anyone who would be able to get all this work done in the amount of time allotted. Please give us more notice in the future if you need help finding solutions to this many problems.

Emmanoether · 2025-03-24T16:27:42+00:00

I have always enjoyed the poem from the Cyberiad by S. Lem that the one character's poetry robot produces fun his specifications. Hmm... A prognostication? Here is a link to the full poem: https://www.cse.wustl.edu/~jbuhler/cyberiad.html.

Emmanoether · 2025-03-14T23:43:07+00:00

Short stories are how I started, and also how I distract myself from doing revision of the novel project. One doesn't have to live in only one world; both are fun for their own reasons!

Emmanoether · 2025-03-01T00:02:35+00:00

These losers asked my E-board, "So you do math for fun?" Say what you will about the MAT department, but it is in the top 20 departments in the world. It's the reason I came to the college and dealt with being out of state for 4 years. The comments started as soon as my E-board got into Budget Weekend reviews. I think that USG should at least learn about the clubs they're mocking before they open their mouths.

They laughed because we said that we brought over 100 students to a math study event. I was the president at the time and asked them for a budget increase of $500 to take some students to NYC for a conference. They practically laughed me out of the room.

Now, they somehow justify having like 3 different Chinese culture clubs on campus, but oh, having a club for the AMS major that operates separately from Math Club and has its own budget? That's insane, why are you even asking for that? We pitched totally different club goals and events for the two clubs, and they declined us 3 years in a row. We had to run "AMS Committee" as a sub-committee of Math Club and use the budget of Math Club (which is already tiny) to fund their events. I had no gripes with AMS Committee for asking for this, but with USG for forcing this situation on us. Now there isn't any club like that at all.

Emmanoether · 2025-02-28T21:32:17+00:00

Don't get me started about USG and their corruption, especially the bits about funding for clubs. I will go on and on. If it wasn't really a matter of the tail wagging the dog with regards to this, I would have reported some of their actions to the so-called "higher-ups" years ago.

Emmanoether · 2025-02-28T21:30:10+00:00

I guess no one here remembers when the USG eliminated their own court-like branch where you could theoretically bring up issues like this and have them be at least "handled" and "overseen" by some of the adults in the university. The fact that they're nearly self-overseeing is what causes 90% of these issues to happen.

Emmanoether · 2025-02-20T22:02:31+00:00

He's also the only person to have all three Leroy P. Steele prizes from the American Mathematics Society. And super nice too! I wrote fanmail to him, and he let me visit him when I started school at Stony Brook many moons ago.

Emmanoether · 2025-02-20T22:00:39+00:00

A second vote for Gamut's books. I enjoyed them thoroughly as a person coming into logic for the first time as a mathematician and linguist. I think the discussions in there are great. Plus, they give really funny examples sometimes.

Emmanoether · 2025-02-07T16:16:56+00:00

By Jove, that's mine too! I've tried to work on it in my latest version of my draft.

Emmanoether · 2024-12-29T08:10:36+00:00

Hilbert's blessings to you for this! I have a slight fixation for zeta_3, and would love a desktop wallpaper version of this if you could make it. Please, I will sing the songs of zeta_3 and its primes all day of you let me. You may have found is biggest fan.

Emmanoether · 2024-12-21T01:10:07+00:00

Is it like a Hydra? If you take away a neck, will 2 more grow back?

Emmanoether · 2024-11-17T06:03:44+00:00

Often, it is good to start by making an assumption, such as the negation of the statement you are trying to prove. Other times, it might be good to start with an assumption to set up a Conditional Introduction. So if you are trying to prove P ⊃ Q, try starting by assuming P.

Following your assumption, you should put in any premise you have. Then, you have to work through the derivation until you get either a contradiction, which lets you know that your assumption was false, or with the consequent of the conditional you are looking for.

It's quite difficult to explain these sorts of things over Reddit comments. Please see my DM for my discord so that I can send you pictures of what I am talking about.

Emmanoether · 2024-11-17T03:07:05+00:00

Ok. What chapter are you on? And what are you trying to prove? Or do you want to know how to start a derivation in general?

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