Theos-Talk Archives (May 2002 Message tt00084)

Bill Meredith wrote:
> Here is another one I remember from Logic class. "If the bough breaks, the
> cradle will fall. Given that the cradle has fallen, one may therefore
> conclude that the bough has broken." True of False

Philosophy is probably the most ignored aspect of theosophical study,
and logic is considered to be a branch of philosophy. Therefore, a
general discussion of logic is quite apropos for a theosophical
discussion.

This is a case of very elementary logic. From a given, "If A, then B",
there are 3 variations:

1) If B, then A (the converse)
2) If not A, then not B (the inverse)
3) If not B, then not A (the contrapositive). 

The original statement does not imply the converse or inverse, but it
DOES imply the contrapositive. The answer to your question, asking if
the converse is necessarily true (if B, then A), is therefore "False". 

Bart