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Therefore,
3. Its a Blues album.
First, we must study the argument closely so as to identify clearly the sentences which compose it.
In the first instance, what we are looking for here are not complex sentences such as Premise 1 but
rather the most simple or basic sentences such as Premise 2 and the conclusion, i.e. we are looking
for the shortest possible well-formed sentences involved. Given our stock of sentence-letters we can
easily represent any such sentence formally. Hence, we simply let the first sentence-letter P stand for
the first such basic sentence involved, i.e. Its a Blind Lemon Jefferson album, and then let the second
sentence-letter Q stand for the second basic sentence involved, i.e. Its a blues album. Having done so,
we can abbreviate the first premise to:
1. If P then Q
Now, the second premise is exactly the same sentence that we used P to stand for. So, we may
rewrite Premise 2 as:
2. P
Finally, the conclusion is exactly the sentence that we used Q to stand for. So, we complete the
formalisation by rewriting 3 as:
3. Q Obviously, sentence-letters are just as easy to use as sentential variables. But do remember
that sentence-letters stand for particular sentences. As such, they are constants and not variables. We
could simply continue to use the more formal term sentential constant, but sentence-letter is much more
user-friendly and using that term may also serve to remind us that it is always particular sentences
which are involved in this type of formalisation. So, I will stick to sentence-letter in what follows.