Well, here's the proof you've all been waiting for, straight from your incipiently senile instructor.
Behold the proof:
1 | (1) | ~P->Q | A |
2 | (2) | ~(PvQ) | A |
3 | (3) | P | A |
3 | (4) | PvQ | 3 vI |
2 | (5) | ~P | 2,4 RAA (3) |
1,2 | (6) | Q | 1,5 ->E |
1,2 | (7) | PvQ | 6 vI |
1 | (8) | PvQ | 2,7 RAA (2) |
Actually, this is sort of a tricky proof, not an easy one to discover without just a little experience with the rules. The strategy is (as I was trying to say in class, but the old neurons went on strike): this looks like a job for the indirect approach. We don't have PvQ as a constituent of any premise, and we don't have any way to get P or Q out of the single premise ~P->Q. So, we're going to try something like this:
1 | (1) | ~P->Q | A |
2 | (2) | ~(PvQ) | A |
. | . | ||
1 | (8) | PvQ | ?,? RAA (2) |
Here's where it gets a little harder. With any RAA proof, the trick is figuring out just which contradictory pair to deduce. A good idea (sometimes) is to try for the denial of something you already have; another good idea (sometimes) is just to try for the very thing you're trying to prove. The strategy is this: if you want to get X, see if you can assume ~X and still get X; then, you can get rid of the assumption. This is the strategy I'll try here:
1 | (1) | ~P->Q | A |
2 | (2) | ~(PvQ) | A |
. | . | ||
2, ? ? | (n-1 ) | PvQ | ? vI |
1 | (n) | PvQ | 2,7 RAA (2) |
So, we try to get PvQ. How could we get it? One way is to get P and use vI; another is to get Q and use vI. Which shall we use?
Since Q is the right side of a conditional in (1), we might try for that:
1 | (1) | ~P->Q | A |
2 | (2) | ~(PvQ) | A |
. | . | . | . |
(n-3) | ~P | ? | |
1, ? | (n-2) | Q | 1,n-3 ->E |
? ,2 | (n-1 ) | PvQ | n-1 vI |
1 | (n) | PvQ | 2,7 RAA (2) |
Here is where the proof gets clever: how shall we get ~P? We can't get it from (1), but since it's a negation we might try RAA:
1 | (1) | ~P->Q | A |
2 | (2) | ~(PvQ) | A |
3 | (3) | P | A |
. | . | ||
(n-3) | ~P | ?,? RAA (3) | |
1, ? | (n-2) | Q | 1,n-3 ->E |
? ,2 | (n-1 ) | PvQ | n-1 vI |
1 | (n) | PvQ | 2,7 RAA (2) |
All we need now is a contradictory pair: either a denial of ~(PvQ), for instance PvQ, or a denial of ~P->Q. But the first of those is easy to get, since we've assumed P: so, we have our contradictory pair, and we discharge assumption 3, and we're done!
1 | (1) | ~P->Q | A |
2 | (2) | ~(PvQ) | A |
3 | (3) | P | A |
3 | (4) | PvQ | 3 vI |
2 | (5) | ~P | 2,4 RAA (3) |
1,2 | (6) | Q | 1,5 ->E |
1,2 | (7) | PvQ | 6 vI |
1 | (8) | PvQ | 2,7 RAA (2) |
Now, that wasn't so hard, was it?