MODULE 5.

M ATHEM ATICAL LOGIC

Subject: GEC 104

Chapter: 5

Lesson 1: Propositions, Conjunctions, Disjunction, Conditional propositions and

Biconditional Propositions
Lesson Objectives: At the end of the lesson the students should be able to
1. Identify simple statements/propositions.
2. Create the negation of a statement.
3. Express a compound statement in symbolic form.
4. Express a conditional statement in terms of necessary and sufficient
conditions.
5. Create the converse, inverse, and contrapositive of a conditional statement
6. Interpret a biconditional statement.
7. Construct a truth table for a compound statement.

Overview/Introduction

Logic deals with the scientific method of judging the truth or falsity of
statements. Mathematics is a body of statements or mathematical sentences.
Symbolic language is important in understanding mathematics as a logical system.
Logic is the basis of all mathematical reasoning.

One of the first mathematicians to make a serious study of symbolic logic

was Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646- 1716). Leibniz tried to advance the study of
logic from a merely philosophical subject to a formal mathematical subject. Leibniz
never completely achieved this goal. However, several mathematicians such as
Augustus De Morgan (1806-1871) and George Boole (1851-1864) contributed to
the advancement of symbolic logic as a mathematical discipline.

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Activity:
Given the following sentences, examine its properties

1. The only positive integers that divide 7 are 1 and itself.

2. Tiger Woods won an academy award in 1940.
3. If three is an odd number, then it is a prime number.
4. Buy two tickets to the rock concert for Friday.
5. x + 4 = 6

Analysis:
Base on the activity above; reflect your ideas in the following questions below.
1. Which sentences/statements are simple? Which are not?
2. Is it possible to combine two or three statements?
3. What connectors will you use?
4. Which statements are true and which are false?

Abstraction:
Watch the following videos
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiS2EgYxtYc
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRsBn54Z16o
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcycyj6exP4
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OynpZwylau8

Definition 1: A statement or a proposition is a declarative sentence that is either

true or false, but not both true and false.

It may not be necessary to determine whether a sentence is true to

determine whether it is a statement. For example, consider the statement below.
“Mt. Apo is in Batangas.”
You may not know if the statement is true, but you do know that the sentence is
either true or false, and it is not both true and false. Thus, you know that the
sentence is a statement.

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Definition 2: A simple statement is a statement that conveys a single idea. A
compound statement is a statement that conveys two or more ideas.

Definition 3: The denial of a statement is called its negation. If p is any proposition,

then we may use the symbol ~ p which is read as “not p” for its negation. The

negation of a true statement is false; the negation of a false statement is true

Truth Table for Negation of a Proposition: p ~p

T F
F T

The words some, all, and no (or none) are referred to as quantifiers. Negations
of statements containing quantifiers are shown below

Statements Negations
All p are q. Some p are not q.
Some p are q. No p are q.

For example, given statement “Five is an odd number”, then we can have the
following as its negations.
1. Five is not an odd number
2. It is not true that five is an odd number
3. It is false that five is an odd number.
4. That five is an odd number is false.

Definition 4: If p and q denotes two propositions, the compound proposition “ p

and q ” is called the conjunction of p and q , and is written symbolically as p  q .

A conjunction is true only if both p and q are true. Otherwise, it is false.

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Truth Table for the Conjunction of p and q : p q pq
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F F

The following are examples of conjunction of two statements.

a. January has 31 days and March has 31 days.
b. It is raining and the sun is shining.
c. Today is Friday and I am going to watch a movie.
d. Vertical angles are congruent and parallel lines intersect.
e. Five is even and four is prime

Definition 5: A compound proposition formed by joining two or more propositions

by the word “or” is called disjunction. A disjunction of two propositions p and q , is

“ p or q ” written in symbolic form as p  q .

The word “or” can be used in the inclusive sense which is equivalent to
“and/or”. For example,
Julia is to pass Basic Calculus or General Mathematics.
This means that Julia is to pass Basic Calculus only or General Mathematics only or
both. Moreover, the word “or” can be used in the exclusive sense which is
equivalent to “either … or” but not both. For example,
Jack is going to the basketball game or Jack is going to watch a movie.
This means that Jack is to go only to one of the activities. To go to the basketball
game or to watch a movie. Logicians have agreed to use the inclusive “or” meaning
one or the other or both.

p q pq
Truth Table for the Disjunction of p and q : T T T
T F T
F T T
F F F

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Definition 6: The proposition “if p , then q denoted in symbols by p  q is called

a conditional or an implication. Proposition p is the antecedent or hypothesis.

Proposition q is called the consequent or conclusion.

p q pq
Truth Table for the Conditional or Implication: T T T
T F F
F T T
F F T

The following are examples of an implication.

1. If I study hard, then I will pass GEC 104.
2. If 2 is an integer, then 2 is a rational number.
3. If it is raining, then we will go to the mall.
4. If you clean your room and take out the garbage, then you can have ice cream.
5. If x is even, then x 2 is even.
6. If an animal can swim, then it is a fish.
7. If two angles are right angles, then they are congruent.
8. If a figure is a square, then it is a quadrilateral.

To prove that the statement is false, it is enough to cite one counter-example.

Converse, Inverse and Contrapositive

If we interchange or negate the antecedent and consequent of a conditional

proposition, then we can have the following types and its corresponding forms as
shown in the table below.
Type Form
Conditional If p , then q .

Converse If q , then p .

Inverse If ~ p , then ~ q .

Contrapositive If ~ q , then ~ p .

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The above definition summarizes the following.

1. The converse of p  q is formed by interchanging the antecedent p with

the consequent q .

2. The inverse of p  q is formed by negating the antecedent p and negating

the consequent q .

3. The contrapositive of p  q is formed by negating both the antecedent p

and the consequent q and interchanging these negating statements.

Truth table for Conditional and Related Statements

Proposition Conditional Converse Inverse Contrapositive

p q pq q p ~ p ~ q ~ q ~ p
T T T T T T
T F F T T F
F T T F F T
F F T T T T

Definition 7: A biconditional is a statement of the form  p  q   q  p  and

is symbolized as p  q . The symbol p  q is read “p if and only if q” and is

frequently abbreviated “p iff q.” A biconditional is equivalent to the conjunction of

two conversely related conditionals: p  q is equivalent to  p  q   q  p  .

The word biconditional means “two conditionals.” In everyday speech,

conditionals often get “hooked together” in a circular fashion. For instance,
someone might say, “If I am rich, then I am happy, and if I am happy, then I am rich.”
Notice that this compound statement is actually the conjunction (and) of a
conditional (if rich, then happy) and its converse (if happy, then rich).

In addition to the phrase “if and only if,” a biconditional can also be
expressed by using “necessary” and “sufficient” terminology. The statement “p is

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sufficient for q” can be rephrased as “if p then q” (and symbolized as p  q ,

whereas the statement “p is necessary for q” can be rephrased as “if q then p” (and
symbolized as q⇒p. Therefore, the biconditional “p if and only if q” can also be
phrased as “p is necessary and sufficient for q.”

Biconditional
A biconditional is an “if and only if” statement. It combines a conditional and its
converse into one statement. Every definition is a biconditional . “If and only if” is
abbreviated “iff”.
Conditional Converse Biconditional
If p , then q . If q , then p . p if and only if q .
( p  q) (q  p) ( p  q)

Ex. If 2 angles are Ex. If 2 angles have the Ex. Two angles are
congruent, then they have same measure, then they congruent if and only if
the same measure. are congruent. they have the same
measures.

Analyzing a biconditional statement.

Express the biconditional “A citizen is eligible to vote if and only if the citizen is at
least eighteen years old” as the conjunction of two conditionals.

SOLUTION. The given biconditional is equivalent to “If a citizen is eligible to vote,

then the citizen is at least eighteen years old, and if a citizen is at least eighteen
years old, then the citizen is eligible to vote.”

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p q Conditional Converse Biconditional

Truth table for Biconditional p  q pq q p pq
T T T T T
T F F T F
F T T F F
F F T T T

Observe that a biconditional is true when both its conditional and converse are
true. A biconditional is false when either its conditional or converse is false.

Connecting simple statements with words and phrases such as and, or,
if…then, and if and only if creates a compound statement. George Boole used
symbols such as p , q , r and s to represent statements and symbols  , , ~,  ,

and  to represent connectives. In summary, we have the table below.

Statement Connective Symbolic Form Type of Statement

not p Not ~p Negation

p and q and pq Conjunction

p or q Or pq Disjunction

If p , then q . If … then pq Conditional

p if and only if q if and only if pq Biconditional

Application:

1. Determine whether each sentence is a proposition or not.

a) Leonardo da Vinci painted Mona Lisa.
b) George Boole’s first profession at a young age of 16 was an assistant school
teacher.
c) 13 is a prime number.
d) Thank you.
e) 33  2 is a prime number.

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f) How are you?
g) x  1  5
h) Open the door.
i) I’m fine.
j) Shut up!

2. Write the negation of the following statements

Propositions
All Filipinos are brown.
Some beauty queens are short.
The cat does not need to be fed.
The fire engine is working.
Parallel lines do not intersect.
Five is prime number.
Negation
_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________

3. Consider the following simple statements.

p : The boxing game will be shown on GMA network.
q : The game will be played in Indonesia.
r : The Filipino fighter will win.

Write the following compound statements.

a. p  q _________________________________________

b. b. p  r _________________________________________

c. c. q  r _________________________________________

4. Consider the following simple statements.

p : All men are created equal.
q : Men love basketball game.
r : The game will be played in Chicago.

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Write each of the following symbolic statements in words.
a. p  q __________________________________________

b. ~ p  q __________________________________________

c. q ~r __________________________________________

5. Construct a truth table. Under what specific conditions is the following compound
statement true?
“I have a high school diploma, or I have a full-time job and no high school diploma.”

Solution.

6. Write the following statements in the if-then form or as an implication.

a) The measure of a right angle is 90  .

b) Two intersecting lines lie in exactly one plane.
c) Three non-collinear points determine a plane.
d) Two angles forming a linear pair are supplementary.
e) We will postpone the examination in case tomorrow is a holiday.

7. For the following conditional, write the converse, inverse and the contrapositive.

a. If an animal has whiskers, then it is a cat.

Converse: _________________________________________
Inverse: ___________________________________________
Contrapositive: ______________________________________

b. If two lines are parallel, then they do not intersect.

Converse: _________________________________________
Inverse: ___________________________________________
Contrapositive: ______________________________________

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8. a) State whether each biconditional is true or false.

1. x  4  7 if and only if x  3 .

2. x 2  36 if and only if x  6.

b) Express the given biconditional as the conjunction of two conditionals.

1. You obtain a refund if and only if you have a receipt.

2. We eat at Kuya Jerms if and only if Kimochi Inn is closed.

Assessment:
Answer and submit the assignment in moodle. Also, take the quiz on moodle.

Lesson 2: Symbolic Arguments

Lesson Objectives: At the end of the lesson the students should be able to
1. To use methods of analyzing arguments.
2. To determine whether arguments are valid or invalid.

Overview/Introduction:

When someone makes a sequence of statements and draws some

conclusion from them, he or she is presenting an argument. An argument consists
of two components: the initial statements, or hypotheses, and the final statement, or
conclusion. When presented with an argument, a listener or reader may ask, “Does
this person have a logical argument? Does his or her conclusion necessarily follow
from the given statements?” An argument is valid if the conclusion of the argument
is guaranteed under its given set of hypotheses.

In this section we consider methods of analyzing arguments to determine

whether they are valid or invalid.

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Activity:
In Lesson 1, you have identified simple statements. Base on that create a
paragraph consisting of three simple statements or watch the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XCc0qIY2iY

Analysis:
1. What is the connection of each statement to the other?
2. What are your thoughts about the first and last statement?
3. What will be your judgement on the entire paragraph?

Abstraction:

Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTSZMdGlo4g

An Argument and a Valid Argument

An argument consists of a set of statements called premises and another

statement called the conclusion.
An argument is valid if the conclusion is true whenever all the premises are
assumed to be true. An argument in invalid if it is not a valid argument.
Argument Types
An inductive argument uses a collection of specific examples as its
premises and uses them to propose a general conclusion. (from specific to general)
A deductive argument uses a collection of general statements as its
premises and uses them to propose a specific situation as the conclusion. (from
general to specific)

Example.1. Human beings are mortal. Aris is human. Therefore, Aris is mortal.

In the argument above, the two premises and the conclusion are shown
below. It is customary to place a horizontal line between the premises and the
conclusion as shown below.

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1st premise: Human beings are mortal.
2nd premise: Aris is human_______.
Conclusion: Therefore, Aris is mortal.

Example 2. The argument below is an inductive argument.

Premises: I ate candy last week and I had toothache.
I ate candy yesterday and I had toothache.
I ate candy today, and I had toothache.___
Conclusion: Therefore, eating candy gives me toothache.

Example 3. Example of a deductive argument.

a) All cats are mammals and a tiger is a cat, so a tiger is a mammal.

Premises: All cats are mammals.
A tiger is a cat.____
Conclusion: A tiger is a mammal.

b) Premise 1: All doctors are men.

Premise 2: My mother is a doctor.
Conclusion: Therefore, my mother is a man.

The conclusion here is false because the 1st premise is false.

Symbolic form of an argument

Example 4. Consider argument in example 1.

Let p ⇒q: Human being are mortal.

p: Aris is a human being.

q: Aris is mortal.

Then the argument can be expressed as

pq
p
q

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Example 5. Write the following argument in symbolic form.

“The fish is fresh or I will not order it. The fish is fresh. Therefore, I will order it. “

Solution.
Let p : The fish is fresh and q : I will order it.

Then the symbolic form of the argument is

p ~ q
p
q

Determining the Validity of an Argument

Truth Table Procedure to determine the Validity of an Argument

1. Write the argument in symbolic form.

2. Construct a truth table that shows the truth value of each premise and the
truth value of the conclusion for all combinations of truth values of the simple
statements.
3. If the conclusion is true in every row of the truth table in which all the
premises are true, the argument is valid. If the conclusion is false in any row
in which all of the premises are true, the argument is valid.

Example 6. Determine whether the following argument is valid or invalid.

“If it rains, then the game will not be played. It is not raining. Therefore, the
game will be played.”

Solution. Let p : It rains and q : the game will be played.

p ~ q
Then the symbolic form is:
~p
q
Assuming that both premises are true, then the conclusion is also true.

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Validity of an Argument Using Venn Diagrams

The validity of a deductive argument can be shown by use of a Venn diagram.

A Venn diagram is a diagram consisting of various overlapping figures contained
within a rectangle (called the “universe”). To depict a statement of the form “All A
are B” (or, equivalently, “If A, then B”), we draw two circles, one inside the other; the
inner circle represents A, and the outer circle represents B. This relationship is
shown in Figure 1.1. Venn diagrams depicting “No A are B” and “Some A are B” are
shown in Figures 1.2 and 1.3, respectively.

U U U

A A B
B A B
Figure 1.1: All A are B. (If A, then B.) Figure 1.2: No A are B. Figure 1.3: Some A are B.

Example 1. Construct a Venn diagram to verify the validity of the following

argument:
a. All men are mortal.
b. Willy is a man.___
Therefore, Willy is mortal.

Solution.
Premise 1 is of the form “All A are B” and can be represented by a diagram like that
shown in Figure 1.4. Premise 2 refers to a specific man, namely, Willy. If we let x =
Willy, the statement “Willy is a man” can then be represented by placing x within the
circle labeled “men,” as shown in Figure 1.5. Because we placed x within the “men”
circle, and all of the “men” circle is inside the “mortal” circle, the conclusion “Willy is
mortal” is inescapable; the argument is valid.

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men men (x)

mortal mortal
U

Figure 1.4: All men are mortal. Figure 1.5: Willy is

mortal.

Example 2. Construct a Venn diagram to determine the validity of the following

argument:
a. All doctors are men.
b. My mother is a doctor._____
Therefore, my mother is a man.
Solution.
Premise 1 is of the form “All A are B”. No matter where x is placed within the
“doctors” circle, the conclusion “My mother is a man” is inescapable; the argument
is valid. Saying that an argument is valid does not mean that the conclusion is true.

The argument given in Example 2 is valid, but the conclusion is false. One’s
mother cannot be a man! Validity and truth do not mean the same thing. An
argument is valid if the conclusion is inescapable, given the premises. Nothing is
said about the truth of the premises. Thus, when examining the validity of an
argument, we are not determining whether the conclusion is true or false. Saying
that an argument is valid merely means that, given the premises, the reasoning
used to obtain the conclusion is logical. However, if the premises of a valid
argument are true, then the conclusion will also be true.

Arguments can be shown valid if they have the same symbolic form as an
argument that is known to be valid. The following are the standards forms of four

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valid arguments. They are the direct reasoning, contrapositive reasoning,
transitive reasoning, and disjunctive reasoning.

Standard Forms of Four Valid Arguments

Direct Contrapositive Transitive Disjunctive

Reasoning Reasoning Reasoning Reasoning

pq pq pq pq

p ~q qr ~p
q ~ p pr q

or

pq
~q
p

Transitive reasoning can be extended to include more than two conditional

premises. For instance, if the conditional premises of an argument are p  q ,

q  r , and r  s , then a valid conclusion for the arguments is p  s .

Example 3. Determine a valid conclusion for each argument.

a. If Julia is a lawyer, then she will be able to help us.

Julia is not able to help us._____________________
?
a. If they had a good time, they will return.
If they return, we will make more money.
?

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b. If you can dream it, you can do it.
You can dream it.________________
?
c. I bought a car or I bought a motorcycle.
I did not buy a car._________________
?

Standard Forms of Two Invalid Arguments

Fallacy of the Converse Fallacy of the Inverse

(Fallacy of affirming the conclusion) (Fallacy of denying the hypothesis)
pq pq
q ~p
p ~ q

Example 4. Determine whether the following arguments are valid or invalid. Then,
write it as a symbolic argument.

a. The program is interesting or I will watch the basketball game.

The program is not interesting.
_________________________________________________
 I will watch the basketball game.

b. If I have a cold, I find it difficult to sleep.

I find it difficult to sleep.
_________________________________________________
 I have a cold.

c. If you do every problem in a math book, then you will learn mathematics.
You learned mathematics. Therefore, you did every problem in the book.

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d. If you do every problem in a math book, then you will learn mathematics.
You did not do every problem in the book. Therefore, you did not learn
mathematics.

Application:

1. Classify each argument as deductive or inductive and write it in symbolic form.

a. I ate a hotdog at Julibay’s and got indigestion.

I ate a hotdog at Macdoy’s and got indigestion.
Therefore, hotdogs give me indigestion.

b. All spicy foods give me indigestion.

Caldereta is a spicy food. ____________
Therefore, eating caldereta give me indigestion.

2. Make 6 arguments representing the 4 valid arguments and the 2 invalid

arguments. State what kind of reasoning was used. Submit your printed output on a
short bond paper with the names of the group members. Your outputs will be
discussed and checked by the other groups in class.

Assessment:
Answer and submit the assignment. Take a quiz posted in moodle.

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