"Even" statements

[stol1989]

I am confused with using "even" in conditional logic. For example:

Even A is B if C.
Does it mean A and C-->B or just C-->B?

Thank you

[tommywallach]

Hey Stol,

Could you show an example of this? I've never heard of it. That said, as far as I can see, it doesn't have any effect on logic.

X is Y

Even X is Y

Those mean the same thing. Though there's a subtle meaning issue in the second example, namely that there's some reason to believe that X might not be Y, even though it turns out to be. However, it doesn't change the fact that X is Y!

-t

[stol1989]

I found this "even" statement in PT 34 S2 Q23: "...In fact, even a physically benign monster is horrific if it inspires revulsion."

Logic of this Q goes like this:
P: Physically dangerous or Horrific-->Threatening
P: In fact, even a physically benign monster is horrific if it inspires revulsion

We are asked to make an inference

Correct answer choice "E" says "All monsters that are not physically dangerous, but are psychologically dangerous and inspire revulsion, are threatening.

In formal logic style it looks like this:
~Physically dangerous and Psychologically dangerous and Inspire revulsion --> Threatening

Let's look again at our stimulus that says:
In fact, even a physically benign monster is horrific if it inspires revulsion
I have two possible interpretations:

1) Physically benign monster and Inspires revulsion --> Horrific (Those two things TOGETHER are sufficient to be horrific)
If we choose first interpretation our logic chains up like that:

Physically benign monster and Inspires revulsion --> Horrific-->Threatening

Correct answer says that we can infer that:
~Physically dangerous and Inspire revulsion --> Threatening. ("Psychologically dangerous" part doesn't matter)

So in order for AC "E" to work we need to equate "Physically benign monster" to "~Physically dangerous". It sound like denying one extreme and arriving at opposite extreme while ignoring that middle ground could exist.

2) Inspires revulsion --> Horrific

With this interpretation life is getting much easier and we can ignore "physically benign" part

Inspires revulsion --> Horrific-->Threatening

So getting back to AC "E" I see that in this case ~Physically dangerous and Psychologically dangerous parts are irrelevant and AC "E" collapses to Inspires revulsion-->Threatening and it is still an inference because we are chaining up two conditional statement to arrive at it.

My vote is for second interpretation, but I want to be more confident in using "even".

I also saw "even" statement in other question, I don't remember exactly what it was like but I can recollect the most troubling part:

Even if A --> B
And an inference that we needed to make in order to answer the Q was
It is ALWAYS B

Thank you)

[tommywallach]

Hey Stol,

Yeah, in your examples the "even" has no effect on the argument. So you can feel safe in that!

-t

[stol1989]

Thank you, now I feel more confident!