Propositions and Predicate Logic

Hafiz Muhammad Tahir

hmtahir@cuilahore.edu.pk
 Propositions
• In classical logic, propositions are statements
that are either TRUE or FALSE.
• The following are examples of propositions
that evaluate to TRUE:
– There are seven days in a week
– Accra is the capital of Ghana
–2+4=6
 Contd…
• The following propositions evaluate to FALSE:
– The angles of a triangle add up to 360
– London is the capital of France
• 2–4=7
• In mathematics we often represent a
proposition symbolically by a variable name
such as P or Q.
For example:
– P: I go shopping on Wednesdays
– Q: 102.001 > 101.31
 LOGICAL CONNECTIVES
• Simple propositions can be combined into
compound statements by operators called
logical connectives.
 The and operator
• The operator known as and is represented by the
symbol ^.
– The statement P and Q is therefore represented by:
• P^Q
• Thus if P represented the statement I like
shopping and Q represented the statement The
sun is shining then P ^ Q would represent the
statement I like shopping and the sun is shining.
• This relationship is called conjunction.
Truth Table of and
 The or operator
• The operator known as or is represented by the
symbol ˅.
• The statement P or Q is therefore represented by:
– P˅Q
• Thus if P represented the statement ‘It is raining’
and Q represented the statement ‘Today is
Tuesday’ then P ˅ Q would represent the
statement ‘It is raining or today is Tuesday’.
• This relationship is called disjunction.
Truth table of or
 The Implication Operator
• The implication operator is represented by the
symbol ⇒.
–P⇒Q
• Thus if P represents ‘It is Wednesday’ and Q
represents ‘I do the Ironing’, then the
expression P ⇒ Q becomes ‘If it is Wednesday
then I do the ironing’.
Truth Table of Implication
 The Equivalence Operator
• The idea of equivalence deals with the
‘otherwise’ part of implication, and is
analogous to an IF… THEN … ELSE statement in
a programming language.
• it is represented by the symbol ⇔.
– P⇔Q
or
– P iff Q
Truth Table of Equivalence
 The Exclusive or
• The natural language ‘or’ usually implies that
only one or other of the statements is TRUE
but not both.
• This corresponds to the logical operator
known as exclusive or (sometimes referred to
as xor), which is represented by ⊕.
– P:I will go to the theatre
– Q:I will go to the cinema
• So (P ⊕ Q).
Truth Table of exclusive or
 Not
• The operation known as negation yields a
proposition with a value opposite to that of
the original one.
• The operator in question is called the not
operator and is represented by the symbol ¬
(or sometimes by ~).
• Thus if P is a proposition, then not P is
represented by:
¬P
Truth Table of NOT
 COMPOUND STATEMENTS AND THE
ORDER OF PRECEDENCE OF
OPERATORS
• Ambiguity can easily arise in compound
statements that contain more than one
proposition. E.g. P˄Q˅R.
– Order of precedence in VDM
• ¬, ˄ , ˅ , ⇒, ⇔
• Brackets are used to indicate the highest
precedence of all.
• ¬P ˄ Q means the conjunction of ¬P with Q,
whereas the expression
• ¬(P ˄ Q) means the negation of the conjunction of
P with Q.
 Logical Equivalence
• Two compound propositions are said to be
logically equivalent if identical results are
obtained from constructing their truth tables.
• This is denoted by the symbol ≡.
– Two examples.
• ¬(P ˄ Q) ≡ ¬P ˅ ¬Q
• (P ˄ Q) ˅ R ≠ P ˄ (Q ˅ R)
¬(P ˄ Q)
¬P ˅ ¬Q
(P ˄ Q) ˅ R
P ˄ (Q ˅ R)
 Tautologies and Contradictions
• A statement which is always TRUE (that is, all
the rows of the truth table evaluate to TRUE)
is called a tautology.
• A statement which is always FALSE (i.e. all
rows of the truth table evaluate to FALSE) is
called a contradiction.
Tautology
Contradiction
 Three Valued Logic
• Classical logic assumes that all expressions
evaluate to TRUE or FALSE. In reality, this is
not always the case when evaluating an
expression, because sometimes an expression
can be undefined – for example, the
expression 0/0.
• For example, when a variable is first declared
and has not yet been assigned a value.
P^Q
P˅Q
P⇒Q
P⇔Q
P⊕Q
P and ¬ P
 Predicate Logic
• For the purpose of reasoning about sets of
values, a more powerful tool than the
propositional logic has been devised, namely
the predicate logic.
• A predicate is a truth-valued expression
containing free variables. These allow the
expression to be evaluated by giving different
values to the variables. Once the variables are
evaluated they are said to be bound.
 Predicate Logic
• A = {s, d, f, h, k}
• B = {a, b, c, d, e, f}
• The symbol Є means ‘is an element of’.
Therefore the statement ‘d is an element of A’
is written:
–dЄA
• The statement ‘p is not an element of A’ is
written:
–p∉A
 EXAMPLES OF PREDICATES
• C(x): x is a cat
• Studies(x,y): x studies y
• Prime(n): n is a prime number
• A statement such as C(x) can be read C of x.
 Binding Variables: By Substitution
• C(Simba): Simba is a cat
• Studies(john, physics): john studies physics
• Prime(3): 3 is a prime number
• The above expressions now have a value of
TRUE or FALSE.
 Binding Variables: By Quantification
The universal quantifier ∀
• This quantifier enables a predicate to make a
statement about all the elements in a particular
set.
– For example, if M(x) is the predicate x chases mice, we
could write:
– ∀x Є Cats ● M(x)
• This reads For all the x which are members of the
set Cats, x chases mice, or, more simply,
– All cats chase mice.
The existential quantifier ∃
• In this case, a statement is made about whether or not
at least one element of a set meets a particular
criterion. For example, if, as above, P(n) is the predicate
n is a prime number, then we could write:
– ∃n Є ℕ ● P(n)
• This reads There exists an n in the set of natural
numbers such that n is a prime number, or, put another
way,
• There exists at least one prime number in the set of
natural numbers.
The unique existential quantifier ∃!
• This quantifier modifies a predicate to make a
statement about whether or not precisely one element
of a set meets a particular criterion.
– For example, if G(x) is the predicate x is green, we could
write
– ∃!x Є Cats ● G(x)
• This would mean There is one and only one cat that is
green.
• If the set over which the predicate is defined is clearly
stated in advance, it can be omitted from the
expression.