D.

Statement Forms and Material Equivalence

A. Statement Forms
There is an exact parallel between the relation of argument to argument form, on the one hand,
and the relation of statement to statement form, on the other. It is important because it identifies
materially equivalent statements which facilitates the understanding of otherwise-torturous prose.
A statement form is an array of symbols exhibiting the logical structure of a statement; it contains
variables but no statements. Thus p q is a statement form, because when statements are substituted for
the variables p and q, a statement results. And just as we distinguished the specific form of a given
argument, so we distinguish the specific form of a given statement as that statement form from which
the statement results by substituting consistently a different simple statement for each different
statement variable ( Symbolic Logic , 2017 ) . An expression such as ( P^-Q) (RvS), where P, Q , R and
S represent unassigned statements , is called statement . While a statement must be either true or false ,
as statement form has no meaning and no truth value until each variable is replaced by as specific
statement
The truth conditions for truth functional statements or statement forms can be evaluated by means of truth
tables. A truth table gives an exhaustive list of all possible combinations of truth values for a given statement form.
Each row of the table represents one set of possible combinations of truth values. ( Truth Table Evaluation of
Statement Forms,nd). The number of rows in a table is 2n where n= the number of variables in the statement form
or number of constants in the statement. Thus a statement form with one variable will have two rows, a statement
form with two variables will have four rows, a statement with three variables will have eight rows, etc.

B. Material Equivalence
Material equivalence is a truth functional relation asserting that two statement connected by the three- bar
sign ( ====) have the same truth value. Two statement that are equivalent in truth value, therefore, are materially
equivalent.
Material equivalence is a truth-functional connective, just as disjunction and ma- terial implication are
truth-functional connectives. The truth value of any truth- functional connective, as explained earlier,
depends on (is a function of ) the truth or falsity of the statements it connects. Thus, we say that the
disjunction of A and B is true if either A is true or B is true or if they are both true. Material equiva-
lence is the truth-functional connective that asserts that the statements it con- nects have the same truth
value. Two statements that are equivalent in truth value, therefore, are materially equivalent. One
straightforward definition is this: Two statements are materially equivalent when they are both true, or
both false. ( Symbolic Logic , 2017 )
The two statements can be true and implies one another ; that results to what we ca;; the material implication.
Hence, even two false statements also materially implies and refer to another therefore they are materially
equivalent. Therefore any two statements that are materially equiv- alent must imply one another, because they are
either both true or both false.
Any two statements, A and B, that are materially equivalent imply one an- other, so we may infer from their
material equivalence that B is true if A is true, and also that B is true only if A is true. Because both of these
relations are entailed by material equivalence, we can read the three-bar sign, , to say if and only if. ( Symbolic
Logic , 2017 )
 General idea: p q says that wherever p is true, q is true, and wherever p is false, q is false. In English,
we represent as if and only if or is necessary and sufficient for.
Ex. A creature is a human if and only if it is a member of the species Homo sapiens.
Being human is necessary and sufficient for being a member of Homo Sapiens.

These statement forms and material evidence are vital in daily discourse of our lives. will go to the
championship game, one may say, if and only if I can acquire a ticket. I will go if I do acquire a ticket,
but I can go only if I acquire a ticket. So my going to the game, and my acquiring a ticket to the game, are
materially equivalent.

Sources :

Symbolic Logic ( 2007, October 16). Retrieved from: http://wps.prenhall.com

Statement Forms, Logical Equivalence and Negation Retrieved from:

http://www.math.vt.edu/people/kohler/Sect1_2.pdf