decide what to do”, and the whole thing (3) “I will call my friends and we will decide what todo”. The reason why (3) counts is that there is a temporal order to the sentence that neitherof the individual components (1) or (2) capture on their own, so we have to mention (3) inorder to convey all the information contained in the full sentence.7. This sentence also asserts all 3 propositions it expresses. This is a unique feature of “and”sentences – only “and” sentences can assert all the propositions they express. The reason forthis is that “and” sentences commit you to the truth of everything you say, including (1) thatyou will call your friends, that (2) you will decide what to do, and (3) that you plan to do it inthat order. If any one of those things doesn’t work out exactly as you said, technically youwould be saying something false. (Btw “but” is just a version of “and” with a contrastingtwist – logically “and” and “but” work the same way.)8. This sentence only asserts one proposition – the whole sentence one: “I will call myfriends or I will decide what to do on my own.” Since you are not committing to calling yourfriends, and you’re not committing to deciding what to do on your own – that’s the wholepoint of “or” sentences, to leave some options open – you are not asserting either of thosecomponent propositions.9. This sentence also only asserts one proposition – the whole sentence one: “If I call myfriends, then we will decide what to do together.” Just like with the “or” sentence above, youare not actually committing to calling your friends or deciding what to do together. All youare saying is that it’s an option. Since it’s not an option you’re committed to, you are notasserting any of its components.10. No: cognitive biases make us reason worse, which is why it’s useful to carefully considerour arguments in order to filter out the biases and increase our chances of ending up with atrue conclusion.
