# Overnight guests in \*my\* dorm room...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overnight-guests-in-my-dorm-room/79043>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [August 31, 2001, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overnight-guests-in-my-dorm-room/79043 "2001-08-31T00:48:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 9

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**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2001, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overnight-guests-in-my-dorm-room/79043/161 "2001-10-01T15:46:08Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Sauron \*  
> It’s valid to say “If Sauron invites people over to torture and kill them, then you will be tortured and killed if he invites you over.” That’s a valid if/then statement. It can be refuted, however, if I can show that I do NOT invite people over to torture and kill them – for example, if I prefer to do my torture and killing at my victim’s house. Or if I don’t torture and kill people. All you have to do to disprove an if/then statement is negate the first half of the statement. It follows logically that if the requirements for an action to occur don’t happen, the action itself doesn’t happen.

Ya want a detailed discussion of this, start a thread about logic. But:

A==\>B (‘if A is true, then B is true’) is NOT disproved by the falsity of A. The logic texts will tell you that it is _vacuously true_ - in the absence of A being true, we really have no evidence of _what_ would be true if A were true.

The only outcome that proves A==\>B false is when A is true and B is false.  
[/hijack]

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**Author:** ![Sauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2001, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overnight-guests-in-my-dorm-room/79043/162 "2001-10-01T19:34:13Z")

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Granted, but I think that’s a little beyond the level I was trying to get **The Ryan** to recognize. He seems to be trying to argue that just by positing an if/then statement, you’re automatically assuming the first portion of the statement to be true. I’m trying to explain to him that that’s not the way it works.

To haul this hijack back to the OP, **The Ryan** appears to be objecting to the statement “Fine, get raped, if that’s what he intends to do.” ( **The Ryan** , please correct me if I’m wrong; as I said before, this is the closest thing to an accusation I can find in the OP.) He claims the OP is therefore accusing the man in question of being a rapist. My point is that this is an if/then statement (to wit: “If he intends to rape you, then you will get raped”), and as such has the potential to be viewed as either a positive or a negative statement. It is not a definitive accusation.

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