No man is weak, unless their name is Bob. From this expression I see that every man who is weak must be called Bob (W => B), but the expression does not equate to all Bob's are weak (B => W), as being named Bob is simply the criteria for allocating everyone who isn't called Bob to the set of "all men who are not weak", meaning that the set of "all weak men" is a subset within the set of "all men named Bob".

Nadia Smith

Nadia Smith

Answered question

2022-09-06

No man is weak, unless their name is Bob.
From this expression I see that every man who is weak must be called Bob ( W B ), but the expression does not equate to all Bob's are weak ( B W ), as being named Bob is simply the criteria for allocating everyone who isn't called Bob to the set of "all men who are not weak", meaning that the set of "all weak men" is a subset within the set of "all men named Bob".
I just want to make sure that my reasoning for why it can't be ( B W ) is correct, I know that this might be obvious but I just found this confusing initially.

Answer & Explanation

Mekhi Parker

Mekhi Parker

Beginner2022-09-07Added 18 answers

Step 1
Yes, your line of reasoning is entirely correct.
"No man is weak, unless their name is Bob" means that
- as long as Bob is not under assessment, then every man is not weak;
- however, we have insufficient information to conclude whether Bob himself is weak or strong.
To be clear, the correct translation is:
not Bob   not weak ,
i.e. (by contrapositive),
weak   Bob ,
i.e., the set of weak men is a subset of the set of men named Bob (just as you explained).
Step 2
In general,
P unless Q
means
P if not Q,
i.e.,
(not Q) implies P(1)
or, equivalently,
P or Q.(2)
Translation (2) is nicely symmetrical and more succinct; on the other hand, Translation (1) is more intuitive as it emphasises that fulfilling Q leads to no certain consequence.

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