c.pelling@bbk.ac.

uk

B.A. Introduction to Logic 2012-13

Lecture 11: Propositional Logic IX
Recap
Principle of bivalence: Every formula is either true or false (but not both). Truth-functionality: The truth-value of any complex formula is determined by the truth-values of the atomic formulas which it contains, together with the way in which those atomic formulas are connected. Negation: P T F Conjunction: P T T F F Disjunction: P T T F F Conditional: P T T F F Biconditional: P T T F F Q T F T F PQ T F F T Q T F T F PQ T F T T Q T F T F PvQ T T T F Q T F T F P&Q T F F F ~P F T

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The limitations of PL formalization

PL connectives are defined by their truth-tables. For this reason, it doesnt make any sense to ask whether the truth-tables in question are right or wrong. But we can ask how closely these connectives, as defined by their truth-tables, relate to their natural language counterparts. As a case study, lets examine the relation between & and and. In some contexts, our use of and does seem to correspond quite closely to &. For example, consider its cold and its raining. This seems true just if (i) its cold, and (ii) its raining. In other contexts, though, our use of and seems to correspond less closely to &. For example, consider Mary got married and had a baby. For this to be true, it doesnt seem enough just that (i) Mary got married and (ii) Mary had a baby; in addition, it seems Mary must have married before having the baby. Moreover, and isnt always used to connect statements. For example, consider John and Mary got married. This is not equivalent to John got married and Mary got married. Or consider some musicians are rich and famous. This is not equivalent to some musicians are rich and some musicians are famous. The moral is that weve got be careful when translating and by &. In some contexts that translation seems legitimate, but not in others. Similar points can be made about the other connectives, notably v and .

Writing truth-tables
Our next aim will be to learn how to write a truth-table for any given formula. Example: Suppose we want to write a truth-table for the formula: (P v Q) R Step 1: Write out the formula itself, and identify all the sentence-letters it involves. Write these out to the left of the formula: P Q R (P v Q) R

Step 2: Now we work out how many rows the truth-table must have. A truth-table for a formula always has 2n rows, where n = the number of sentence-letters that the formula involves. In our case, the formula involves three sentence-letters, so that means our table needs 2 3 = 2 x 2 x 2 = 8 rows: P Q R (P v Q) R

c.pelling@bbk.ac.uk Step 3: The next thing is to assign truth-values to the sentence-letters. We begin with the sentenceletter nearest to the main formula on the right, and we alternate Ts and Fs all the way down: P Q R T F T F T F T F (P v Q) R

Step 4: Now we fill in the columns for the other sentence-letters, working from right to left. For each successive column, we alternate Ts and Fs half as often as we did in the column to its right: P Q T T F F T T F F Q T T F F T T F F R T F T F T F T F R T F T F T F T F (P v Q) R

P T T T T F F F F

(P v Q) R

Step 5: For each row of the table under the main formula, we start by writing in the truth-values assigned to each sentence-letter under every occurrence of that sentence-letter in the main formula. When we do this for the first row, we get: P T T T T F F F F Q T T F F T T F F R T F T F T F T F (P v Q) R T T T

c.pelling@bbk.ac.uk Step 6: Then we identify the main connective in the formula, and we highlight the column beneath it by enclosing it in a box marked m.c.. We do this to emphasise that the column in question is where we will enter the overall truth-value for the whole formula. In our case, the main connective is the arrow: P T T T T F F F F Q T T F F T T F F R T F T F T F T F (P v Q) R T T | |T | | | | | | | | | | | | | | m.c.

Step 7: To calculate the truth-value to be entered in the m.c. box, we first need to calculate the truthvalue for the disjunction P v Q. This is straightforward, so long as we know the truth-table for disjunction: P T T T T F F F F Q T T F F T T F F R T F T F T F T F (P v Q) R TTT | |T | | | | | | | | | | | | | | m.c.

Step 8: We know now that on the first row, the main formula has a true antecedent and a true consequent. If we know the truth-table for the conditional, we can now write in the overall truth-value in the m.c. box: P T T T T F F F F Q T T F F T T F F R T F T F T F T F (P v Q) R TTT |T|T | | | | | | | | | | | | | | m.c.

c.pelling@bbk.ac.uk Step 9: To complete the table, we repeat steps 5-8 for every other row: P T T T T F F F F Q T T F F T T F F R T F T F T F T F (P v Q) R TTT |T|T TTT |F|F TTF |T|T TTF |F|F FTT |T|T FTT |F|F FFF |T|T FFF |T|F m.c.

Contingent formulas, tautologies, and logical falsehoods

Each formula has its own truth-table, and so falls into one of three general types: Formulas which have a mixture of Ts and Fs as overall truth-values are contingent. Formulas which have Ts as overall truth-values on every row are tautologies. Formulas which Fs as overall truth-values on every row are inconsistent.

Reading
Tomassi, P. Logic. Chapter 4, IV - VI.

Exercises
Exercises 4.1, 4.2

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