 Much of our learning from conditionals runs as smoothly as this example suggests. Since we know the conditional, we are poised learn the consequent merely by learning the antecedent (and by applying the inference rule modus ponens: If \(P\) then \(Q\), \(P\), therefore \(Q\)). But the next section is devoted to some known conditionals that are repudiated when we learn their antecedents.