quote: Originally posted by kryogenix
assuming that statement is true, then the contrapositive of that statement is if i do not respect them, then they do not respect me
that is not necessarily true, so what does that mean?
Actually, since you assume his statement to be true, then the contrapositive is always going to hold true.
Proof:
Assume that the statement, "If they respect me, then I'll respect them" is true.
That means either they do not respect him, or they respect him and he respects them.
The contrapositive is "If I do not respect them, they do not respect me."
Case 1: They do not respect him. That automatically makes the original conditional true as a given. It also makes the contrapositive true because it makes the second half of the contrapositive true (which, by definition, makes the entire conditional true).
Case 2: They respect him and he respects them. The original is a T->T, which is of course true, and the contrapositive is a F->F, which, again, is true.
Because the contrapositive holds true in every case that the original conditional holds true in, you have absolutely no point here. To quote Willy Wonka, "You lose. You win nothing!"
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