Connections With Logical Principles
The logical roots of the Holmes remark speak to the principle of excluded middle. That indicates the importance to case analysis of logical disjunction: stringing together propositions with the logical connective "or". Medical diagnosis can indeed follow the Holmes pattern, with a patient's symptom possibly caused by a number of conditions: the patient suffers from A or B or ... or illness I; see differential diagnosis. Deductive logic is applied to reducing the number of cases; see case-based reasoning.
A canonical statement of case analysis in the sentential calculus is:
"If a statement P implies a statement Q, and a statement R also implies Q, and either P or R is true, then Q must be true."
Read more about this topic: Case Analysis
Famous quotes containing the words connections with, connections, logical and/or principles:
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—Elizabeth Janeway (b. 1913)
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“The chief lesson of the Depression should never be forgotten. Even our liberty-loving American people will sacrifice their freedom and their democratic principles if their security and their very lives are threatened by another breakdown of our free enterprise system. We can no more afford another general depression than we can afford another total war, if democracy is to survive.”
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