Soundness

An argument is sound if, and only if, (1) the argument is valid and (2) all of its premises are true.

So suppose we have a sound argument:

All men are mortal.

Socrates is a man.

Therefore, Socrates is mortal.

In this case we have an argument where, first, if the premises are all true, then the conclusion must be true (i.e., the argument is valid); and, second, it so happens that the premises are all true. It follows that the conclusion must be true. That is the nice thing about soundness: if you know an argument is sound, then you know that the conclusion of the argument is true. By definition, all sound arguments have true conclusions. So soundness is a very good quality for an argument to have.

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In mathematical logic, the term soundness has another technical meaning; if a theorem holding in some symbolic formal system imples that the theorem holds in some model, then the system is said to be sound. The reverse condition (holding in a model implies holding in a formal system) is called completeness?.