Question

I just started to get into deductive reasoning and was wondering how to prove an argument to be false.

In Modus Ponens: If P then QP
thus, Q If I had an argument like this: P1) If you wear a tin foil hat, then aliens cannot read your mind.
P2) Sam wears a tinfoil hat.
C1) Therefore aliens cannot read Sam's mind. Now, I know that Modus Ponens just tests the validity of an argument, but the premises here are clearly false and lets say I prove that it is false, what would I call this? ""faulty logic?"" Also what would I say to this: P2) If you wear a tin foil hat, then aliens cannot read your mind.
P3) Sam does not wear a tin foil hat.
C2) Therefore, aliens can read Sam's mind. This would be denying the antecedent. The same applies here. What would I call this if the premises were false?

Answer 1

In deductive reasoning, you can prove an argument to be false by finding a scenario where the premises are true but the conclusion is false. This can be considered faulty logic. In the second argument, if you were able to prove that not wearing a tin foil hat does not mean aliens can read minds, then the argument would also be considered false.

Step-by-step explanation:

In deductive reasoning, you can prove an argument to be false by finding a scenario where the premises are true but the conclusion is false. In the case of the first argument, if you were able to prove that wearing a tin foil hat does not prevent aliens from reading minds, then the argument would be considered false. You could call this a faulty logic as the premises are false. Similarly, in the second argument, if you were able to prove that not wearing a tin foil hat does not mean aliens can read minds, then the argument would also be considered false.

This would be known as denying the antecedent, and if the premises were false, the argument would still be considered false.