Propositional logic

Not to be confused with Propositional analysis.

Propositional logic is a branch of classical logic. It is also called statement logic, sentential calculus, propositional calculus, sentential logic, or sometimes zeroth-order logic. Sometimes, it is called first-order propositional logic to contrast it with System F, but it is distinct from first-order logic. It deals with propositions (which can be true or false) and relations between propositions, including the construction of arguments based on them. Compound propositions are formed by connecting propositions by logical connectives representing the truth functions of conjunction, disjunction, implication, biconditional, and negation. Some sources include other connectives, as in the table below.

Unlike first-order logic, propositional logic does not deal with non-logical objects, predicates about them, or quantifiers. However, all the machinery of propositional logic is included in first-order logic and higher-order logics. In this sense, propositional logic is the foundation of first-order logic and higher-order logic.

Propositional logic is typically studied with a formal language, in which propositions are represented by letters, which are called propositional variables. These are then used, together with symbols for connectives, to make propositional formulas. Because of this, the propositional variables are called atomic formulas of a formal propositional language. While the atomic propositions are typically represented by letters of the alphabet, there is a variety of notations to represent the logical connectives. For the benefit of readers who may only be used to a different variant notation for the logical connectives, the following table shows the main notational variants for each of the connectives in propositional logic. Other notations have been used historically, such as Polish notation. For the history of each of these symbols, see the respective articles as well as the article "Logical connective".

Notational variants of the connectives

Connective	Symbol
AND	$A\land B$, $A\cdot B$, $AB$, $A\&B$, $A\&\&B$
equivalent	$A\equiv B$, $A\Leftrightarrow B$, $A\leftrightharpoons B$
implies	$A\Rightarrow B$, $A\supset B$, $A\rightarrow B$
NAND	$A{\overline {\land }}B$, $A\mid B$, ${\overline {A\cdot B}}$
nonequivalent	$A\not \equiv B$, $A\not \Leftrightarrow B$, $A\nleftrightarrow B$
NOR	$A{\overline {\lor }}B$, $A\downarrow B$, ${\overline {A+B}}$
NOT	$\neg A$, $-A$, ${\overline {A}}$, $\sim A$
OR	$A\lor B$, $A+B$, $A\mid B$, $A\parallel B$
XNOR	$A\odot B$
XOR	$A{\underline {\lor }}B$, $A\oplus B$

The most thoroughly researched branch of propositional logic is classical truth-functional propositional logic, in which formulas are interpreted as having precisely one of two possible truth values, the truth value of true or the truth value of false. The principle of bivalence and the law of excluded middle are upheld. By comparison with first-order logic, truth-functional propositional logic is considered to be zeroth-order logic.

History

Main article: History of logic

Although propositional logic had been hinted by earlier philosophers, Chrysippus is often credited with development of a deductive system for propositional logic as his main achievement in the 3rd century BC which was expanded by his successor Stoics. The logic was focused on propositions. This was different from the traditional syllogistic logic, which focused on terms. However, most of the original writings were lost and, at some time between the 3rd and 6th century CE, Stoic logic faded into oblivion, to be resurrected only in the 20th century, in the wake of the (re)-discovery of propositional logic.

Symbolic logic, which would come to be important to refine propositional logic, was first developed by the 17th/18th-century mathematician Gottfried Leibniz, whose calculus ratiocinator was, however, unknown to the larger logical community. Consequently, many of the advances achieved by Leibniz were recreated by logicians like George Boole and Augustus De Morgan, completely independent of Leibniz.

Gottlob Frege's predicate logic builds upon propositional logic, and has been described as combining "the distinctive features of syllogistic logic and propositional logic." Consequently, predicate logic ushered in a new era in logic's history; however, advances in propositional logic were still made after Frege, including natural deduction, truth trees and truth tables. Natural deduction was invented by Gerhard Gentzen and Stanisław Jaśkowski. Truth trees were invented by Evert Willem Beth. The invention of truth tables, however, is of uncertain attribution.

Within works by Frege and Bertrand Russell, are ideas influential to the invention of truth tables. The actual tabular structure (being formatted as a table), itself, is generally credited to either Ludwig Wittgenstein or Emil Post (or both, independently). Besides Frege and Russell, others credited with having ideas preceding truth tables include Philo, Boole, Charles Sanders Peirce, and Ernst Schröder. Others credited with the tabular structure include Jan Łukasiewicz, Alfred North Whitehead, William Stanley Jevons, John Venn, and Clarence Irving Lewis. Ultimately, some have concluded, like John Shosky, that "It is far from clear that any one person should be given the title of 'inventor' of truth-tables".

Sentences

Main article: Proposition

Propositional logic, as currently studied in universities, is a specification of a standard of logical consequence in which only the meanings of propositional connectives are considered in evaluating the conditions for the truth of a sentence, or whether a sentence logically follows from some other sentence or group of sentences.

Declarative sentences

Propositional logic deals with statements, which are defined as declarative sentences having truth value. Examples of statements might include:

• Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit.
• London is the capital of England.
• All Wikipedia editors speak at least three languages.

Declarative sentences are contrasted with questions, such as "What is Wikipedia?", and imperative statements, such as "Please add citations to support the claims in this article.". Such non-declarative sentences have no truth value, and are only dealt with in nonclassical logics, called erotetic and imperative logics.

Compounding sentences with connectives

See also: Atomic formula and Atomic sentence

In propositional logic, a statement can contain one or more other statements as parts. Compound sentences are formed from simpler sentences and express relationships among the constituent sentences. This is done by combining them with logical connectives: the main types of compound sentences are negations, conjunctions, disjunctions, implications, and biconditionals, which are formed by using the corresponding connectives to connect propositions. In English, these connectives are expressed by the words "and" (conjunction), "or" (disjunction), "not" (negation), "if" (material conditional), and "if and only if" (biconditional). Examples of such compound sentences might include:

• Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and millions already have. (conjunction)
• It is not true that all Wikipedia editors speak at least three languages. (negation)
• Either London is the capital of England, or London is the capital of the United Kingdom, or both. (disjunction)

If sentences lack any logical connectives, they are called simple sentences, or atomic sentences; if they contain one or more logical connectives, they are called compound sentences, or molecular sentences.

Sentential connectives are a broader category that includes logical connectives. Sentential connectives are any linguistic particles that bind sentences to create a new compound sentence, or that inflect a single sentence to create a new sentence. A logical connective, or propositional connective, is a kind of sentential connective with the characteristic feature that, when the original sentences it operates on are (or express) propositions, the new sentence that results from its application also is (or expresses) a proposition. Philosophers disagree about what exactly a proposition is, as well as about which sentential connectives in natural languages should be counted as logical connectives. Sentential connectives are also called sentence-functors, and logical connectives are also called truth-functors.

Arguments

Main article: Argument

An argument is defined as a pair of things, namely a set of sentences, called the premises, and a sentence, called the conclusion. The conclusion is claimed to follow from the premises, and the premises are claimed to support the conclusion.

Example argument

The following is an example of an argument within the scope of propositional logic:

Premise 1: If it's raining, then it's cloudy.

Premise 2: It's raining.

Conclusion: It's cloudy.

The logical form of this argument is known as modus ponens, which is a classically valid form. So, in classical logic, the argument is valid, although it may or may not be sound, depending on the meteorological facts in a given context. This example argument will be reused when explaining § Formalization.

Validity and soundness

Main articles: Validity (logic) and Soundness

An argument is valid if, and only if, it is necessary that, if all its premises are true, its conclusion is true. Alternatively, an argument is valid if, and only if, it is impossible for all the premises to be true while the conclusion is false.

Validity is contrasted with soundness. An argument is sound if, and only if, it is valid and all its premises are true. Otherwise, it is unsound.

Logic, in general, aims to precisely specify valid arguments. This is done by defining a valid argument as one in which its conclusion is a logical consequence of its premises, which, when this is understood as semantic consequence, means that there is no case in which the premises are true but the conclusion is not true – see § Semantics below.

Formalization

Propositional logic is typically studied through a formal system in which formulas of a formal language are interpreted to represent propositions. This formal language is the basis for proof systems, which allow a conclusion to be derived from premises if, and only if, it is a logical consequence of them. This section will show how this works by formalizing the § Example argument. The formal language for a propositional calculus will be fully specified in § Language, and an overview of proof systems will be given in § Proof systems.

Propositional variables

Main article: Propositional variable

Since propositional logic is not concerned with the structure of propositions beyond the point where they cannot be decomposed any more by logical connectives, it is typically studied by replacing such atomic (indivisible) statements with letters of the alphabet, which are interpreted as variables representing statements (propositional variables). With propositional variables, the § Example argument would then be symbolized as follows:

Premise 1: $P\to Q$

Premise 2: $P$

Conclusion: $Q$

When P is interpreted as "It's raining" and Q as "it's cloudy" these symbolic expressions correspond exactly with the original expression in natural language. Not only that, but they will also correspond with any other inference with the same logical form.

When a formal system is used to represent formal logic, only statement letters (usually capital roman letters such as $P$, $Q$ and $R$) are represented directly. The natural language propositions that arise when they're interpreted are outside the scope of the system, and the relation between the formal system and its interpretation is likewise outside the formal system itself.

Gentzen notation

If we assume that the validity of modus ponens has been accepted as an axiom, then the same § Example argument can also be depicted like this:

${\frac {P\to Q,P}{Q}}$

This method of displaying it is Gentzen's notation for natural deduction and sequent calculus. The premises are shown above a line, called the inference line, separated by a comma, which indicates combination of premises. The conclusion is written below the inference line. The inference line represents syntactic consequence, sometimes called deductive consequence, which is also symbolized with ⊢. So the above can also be written in one line as $P\to Q,P\vdash Q$.

Syntactic consequence is contrasted with semantic consequence, which is symbolized with ⊧. In this case, the conclusion follows syntactically because the natural deduction inference rule of modus ponens has been assumed. For more on inference rules, see the sections on proof systems below.

Language

The language (commonly called ${\mathcal {L}}$) of a propositional calculus is defined in terms of:

1. a set of primitive symbols, called atomic formulas, atomic sentences, atoms, placeholders, prime formulas, proposition letters, sentence letters, or variables, and
2. a set of operator symbols, called connectives,