Prof. Dr.
Quanita Kiran
Formal or propositional logic was first developed by the
ancient Greeks, who wanted to be able to reason carefully
about statements in natural language.
Logical reasoning is difficult and unreliable when using a
natural language like Urdu (or English!).
Suppose a friend says ‘There is raining outside and I feel
cold’.
‘Birds are flying and cows are grazing’.
The word and has several subtly different meanings, and
we choose the appropriate meaning using our knowledge
of the world.
There is no way to solve all the ambiguities of English.
Instead of attempting the impossible we need to separate
the logical structure of an argument from all the
connotations of the English.
A proposition is a
declarative sentence
PROPOS (that is, a sentence
ITION that declares a fact)
that is either true or
false, but not both.
EXAMPLE : Consider the following sentences.
1. In Islamabad, oranges sell by count and not by
weight.
2. Self medication without supervision is dangerous.
3. Advertisement industry shows the exaggerated specs
of the product to catch the consumer’s attention.
4. 36 is divisible by 6.
5. The sun is shining.
All are declarative sentences with a truth value and so are
propositions. Propositions are also called Statements.
EXAMPLE : Consider the following sentences.
1. Where is the car?
2. Let’s go for a picnic this weekend.
3. I suggest you to work hard.
4. Keep your mobile on silent mode.
5. Fantastic!
So all of the above sentences are not propositions.
The conventional
letters used for
propositional variables
are p, q, r , s,…
REPRESEN The truth value of a
TATION OF proposition is true,
A denoted by T, if it is a
true proposition
PROPOSITI
ON and
The truth value of a
proposition is false,
denoted by F, if it is a
false proposition.
1. Istanbul is the capital
of Turkey.
2. 15 is an even number.
TELL 3. Karachi is the smallest
THE city of Pakistan.
TRUTH 4. 1 + 1 = 2.
VALUES 5. 2 + 2 = 3.
6. It is Wednesday today.
Many mathematical statements are
constructed by combining one or more
propositions. New propositions, called
compound propositions, are formed
from existing propositions using logical
operators or Connectives.
Let p be a proposition. The negation of p,
denoted by ￢p, is the statement “It is not the
case that p.”
The proposition ￢p is read “not p”. The truth
value of the negation of p, ￢p, is the opposite
of the truth value of p.
Negation:
Examples: ￢ p=It is not raining
p=Its is raining outside.
outside. ￢ q=I don’t feel cold. /
q= I feel cold. I feel hot/warm.
r=Cats are ￢ r=Cats are not furry.
furry. ￢ s=Elephants are not
s=Elephants heavy / Elephants are
are heavy. light.
Above Table displays
p ￢p the truth table for the
negation of a
T F proposition p.
This table has a row
for each of the two
F T possible truth values
of a proposition p.
Each row shows the
truth value of ￢p
corresponding to the
truth value of p for
this row.
Let p and q be propositions. The conjunction of p and q,
denoted by p q, is the proposition “p and q.” The
conjunction p q is true when both p and q are true and
is false otherwise.
p q=The sun is shining and I
Examples: feel happy.
p=The sun is r s=Cats are furry and elephants
shining.
q= I feel happy.
are heavy.
r=Cats are furry.
s=Elephants are p q p q
heavy. Truth Table T T T
for T F F
conjunction
F T F
F F F
Let p and q be propositions. The disjunction of p and
q, denoted by p q, is the proposition “p or q.” The
disjunction p q is false when both p and q are false
and is true otherwise.
Examples: p v q=The sun is shining or I feel
p=The sun is happy.
shining. r v s=Cats are furry or elephants
q= I feel happy. are heavy.
p q pvq
r=Cats are furry.
s=Elephants are T T T
heavy. Truth Table
T F T
for F T T
disjunction F F F
This proposition is true
Let p and q be
when p is true and q is
propositions. The
false, and when p is
Exclusive OR of p and q,
false and q is true. It is
denoted by p q, is the
false when both p and q
proposition “p or q (but
are false and when both
not both)”.
are true.
Examples:
1. Tom is a boy or a girl. p q p q
2. You may take either tea or T T F
Coffee. T F T
Truth Table
for F T T
Exclusive OR F F F
p but q means p and q
neither p nor q means ￢ p and ￢
q.
Write each of the following sentences symbolically, letting
h = “Ali opted Calculus” and w = “Ali opted Discrete
Mathematics”
1. Ali didn’t opt Calculus but he opted Discrete
Mathematics.
2. Ali neither opted Calculus nor Discrete Mathematics.
Solution:
1. The given sentence is equivalent to “Ali didn’t opt Calculus and
he opted Discrete Mathematics,” which can be written
symbolically as h w.
2. John neither opted Calculus nor Discrete Mathematics means that
Ali didn’t opt Calculus and he didn’t opt Discrete Mathematics
also. Therefore, the given sentence can be written symbolically as
h w.
Let be the Universal Set and and be any non empty
sets. The following notations hold:
For any set , is the preposition which is either
true or false. Similarly, we can consider to be
another proposition.
Intersection of Sets represents “ ”
Union of Sets represents “ ”
Complement of a Set represents “￢ ( )= ”.
So, instead of truth tables, we have membership tables.
Membership Table
Show that
A B
1 1 1 1
1 0 0 1
0 1 0 0
0 0 0 0
Here 1 stands for T and 0 stands for F.
The notation for inequalities involves and and or
statements. For instance, if x, a, and b are
particular real numbers, then
x ≤ a means x < a or x = a
a ≤ x ≤ b means a ≤ x and x ≤ b.
Example:
Suppose x is a particular real number. Let p, q,
and r symbolize “5 < x,” “x < 9,” and “x = 9,”
respectively. Write the following inequalities
symbolically:
1. x ≤ 9
2. 5 < x < 9
3. 5 < x ≤ 9
Construct a truth table for the statement form (a b)
￢c.
a b c a ￢c (a b) ￢c
b
Construct a truth table for the statement form (a b)
￢c.
a b c a ￢c (a b) ￢c
b
T T T
Construct a truth table for the statement form (a b)
￢c.
a b c a ￢c (a b) ￢c
b
T T T
T T F
Construct a truth table for the statement form (a b)
￢c.
a b c a ￢c (a b) ￢c
b
T T T
T T F
T F T
Construct a truth table for the statement form (a b)
￢c.
a b c a ￢c (a b) ￢c
b
T T T
T T F
T F T
F T T
Construct a truth table for the statement form (a b)
￢c.
a b c a ￢c (a b) ￢c
b
T T T
T T F
T F T
F T T
T F F
Construct a truth table for the statement form (a b)
￢c.
a b c a ￢c (a b) ￢c
b
T T T
T T F
T F T
F T T
T F F
F T F
Construct a truth table for the statement form (a b)
￢c.
a b c a ￢c (a b) ￢c
b
T T T
T T F
T F T
F T T
T F F
F T F
F F T
Construct a truth table for the statement form (a b)
￢c.
a b c a ￢c (a b) ￢c
b
T T T
T T F
T F T
F T T
T F F
F T F
F F T
F F F
Construct a truth table for the statement form (a b)
￢c.
a b c a ￢c (a b) ￢c
b
T T T T
T T F T
T F T F
F T T F
T F F F
F T F F
F F T F
F F F F
Construct a truth table for the statement form (a b)
￢c.
a b c a ￢c (a b) ￢c
b
T T T T F
T T F T T
T F T F F
F T T F F
T F F F T
F T F F T
F F T F F
F F F F T
Construct a truth table for the statement form (a b)
￢c.
a b c a ￢c (a b) ￢c
b
T T T T F
T T F T T
T F T F F
F T T F F
T F F F T
F T F F T
F F T F F
F F F F T
Construct a truth table for the statement form (a b)
￢c.
a b c a ￢c (a b) ￢c
b
T T T T F T
T T F T T T
T F T F F F
F T T F F F
T F F F T T
F T F F T T
F F T F F F
F F F F T T
Construct a truth table for the statement form (a b)
￢c.
a b c a ￢c (a b) ￢c
b
T T T T F T
T T F T T T
T F T F F F
F T T F F F
T F F F T T
F T F F T T
F F T F F F
F F F F T T
Another description of Exclusive or (XOR).
Construct the truth table of (p q) ￢ (p q).
(p or q but not p and q)
p q pvq p ￢(p q) (p q) ￢ (p q)
q
T T T T F F
T F T F T T
F T T F T T
F F F F T F
Let p and q be propositions. The conditional statement
p → q is the proposition “if p, then q.”
The conditional statement p → q is false when p is true
and q is false, and true otherwise.
p is called the hypothesis (or antecedent or premise)
and q is called the conclusion (or consequence).
Truth Table for Conditional
Statements
p q p→q
T T T
T F F
F T T
F F T
s=It is raining outside.
p= I feel cold.
s → p: If it is raining outside, then I feel cold.
There is a subtle but crucial difference between →
and the corresponding English sentences.
m=The moon orbits the earth.
h=The sun is hot.
m → h If the moon orbits the earth, then the sun is
hot.
Logical implication says nothing about cause-and-
effect relationships.
c=The sun is cold.
g= The moon is made of green cheese.
c→ g If the sun is cold, then the moon is made
of green cheese.
Here, c and g are both false, but the definition
says that c → g is true.
Why should the English translation of c → g
be true?
Suppose your friend claims that
‘Fifty people came to my party last night.’
but you’re sure there were only twenty..
You might retort..
‘If fifty people went to your party, then I’m the
king of China.’
English sentences contain
all sorts of connotations,
but logical propositions
mean nothing more than
what the defining truth
tables say. The truth
table for → is just a
definition. It is
meaningless to argue
about whether the
definition given above is
‘correct’; definitions
aren’t either right or
wrong, they are just
definitions.
Consider another statement:
“If you get 100% on the final, then you will get an A.”
So what do you say about the statement:
“If 0=1, then dogs can fly.”
“if p, then q”
“p implies q”
“if p, q”
“p only if q”
“p is sufficient for q”
“a sufficient condition for q is
SEVERAL p”
FORMS OF “q if p”
P→Q “q whenever p”
“q when p”
“q is necessary for p”
“a necessary condition for p is
q”
“q follows from p”
“q unless ￢p”
= "Jones told the truth."
= "The butler did it."
It is necessary that butler did it for Jones told the
truth.
Jones told the truth imply the butler did it.
A sufficient condition for butler did it is that Jones
told the truth.
The butler did it whenever Jones told the truth.
Jones told the truth only if the butler did it.
The butler did it follows from Jones told the truth.
The butler did it unless Jones told the lie.
Express the given proposition in the
several forms of if-then statements.
To get tenure as a professor, it is
sufficient to be world famous.
