An argument with a false premise can be logically valid in formal logic.
the verdict
SUPPORTED
the evidence backs this
refutedsupported
the weight of evidence
2 sources for · 0 against
Reference materials on formal and deductive logic establish that an argument can be logically valid even if its premises are false, provided the logical form ensures that true premises would guarantee the conclusion.
In logic, specifically in deductive reasoning, an argument is valid if and only if it takes a form that makes it impossible for the premises to be true
In logic, specifically in deductive reasoning, an argument is valid if and only if it takes a form that makes it impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion nevertheless to be false. It is not required for a valid argument to have premises that are actually true, but to have premises that, if they were true, would guarantee the truth of the argument's conclusion. Valid arguments must
All men are immortal. (False)
Socrates is a man. (True)
Therefore, Socrates is mortal. (True)
In this case, the conclusion contradicts the deductive logic of the preceding premises, rather than deriving from it. Therefore, the argument is logically 'invalid', even though the conclusion could be considered 'true' in general terms. The premise 'All men are immortal' would likewise be deemed false outside of the framework of classical logic. However, within that system 'true' and 'false' essentially function more like mathematical states such as binary 1s and 0s than the philosophical concepts normally associated with those terms. Formal arguments that are invalid are often associated with at least one fallacy which should be verifiable.
A standard view is that whether an argument is valid is a matter of the argument's logical form. Many techniques are employed by logicians to represent an argument's logical form. A simple example, applied to two of the above illustrations, is the following: Let the letters 'P', 'Q', and 'S' stand, respectively, for the set of men, the set of mortals, and Socrates. Using these symbols, the first argument may be abbreviated as:
Abstract A believable conclusion is usually judged more acceptable than an unbelievable one, all other things being equal. However, there has been little empirical work to address how the believability of the premises affects the acceptability of an argument. In the present experiment, participants solved problems having either believable, unbelievable, or neutral premises, and having either believable or unbelievable conclusions. People were more likely to accept a conclusion when it was supported by believable premises than when it was supported by either unbelievable or neutral premises; this effect was true of both valid and invalid arguments. The fact that premise believability did not interact with logical validity suggested that premise believability acts independently of logical analysis. The results suggest a "filtering" mechanism, which operates after logical analysis has occurred, and which rejects conclusions that are unbelievable, or that are derived from unbelievable premises. By definition, a sound argument is one that has good form (i.e., is logically valid) and good content (i.e., is based on true premises). A sound argument produces conclusions that are always true, and which follow necessarily from their premises (Johnson & Blair, 1983; Kelley, 1994); as such, the ability to construct sound arguments is one of the hallmarks of rational thought. It is surprising, therefore, that a systematic investigation of how people evaluate the soundness of arguments has
Everything we examined (2)
This check searched the claim as stated. It did not run a separate search for evidence against it.