1. Complete sets of connectives, truth-functions and substitutions

Complete Sets of Connectives

Complete Set of Connectives

A set of connectives is called complete (or adequete) if every propositional logic formula is equivalent to a formula using only connectives from this set.

Examples:

  • Since every formula has a DNF, the set is complete.
  • From De Morgan’s laws we have that: Therefore both sets of connectives and are complete.

To show a given set of connectives is complete, we need to express it in terms of a known complete set of connectives.

  • The set is complete because , hence the set can be expressed in terms of the complete set .
  • No singleton set from the standard set of connectives is complete.
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Truth-functions

Truth-function

A truth-function is a function whose arguments take true ($1$) or false ($0$) and return either true or false as their output.

title: Example
Let $f$ be the truth-function as defined:
$$
	f(P,Q,R) = 1 \iff \text{either } P = Q = 0 \text{ or } Q = R = 1
$$
 
Hence $f$ is equal to $1$ in these four exact cases:
$$
	f(0,0,0), f(0,0,1), f(0,1,1), f(1,1,1)
$$
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Substitutions

Uniform substitution of formulae

Universal substitution of formula for propositional variables:

  • Let be formulae.
  • Let be propositional variables. ? The expression denotes the formula obtained by simultaneously replacing all occurences of in by the formula , by and so forth.
  • We say that the formula is a substitution instance of the original formula.
title: Example 1
Let $W$ be $P \rightarrow (Q \rightarrow P)$.
Hence $W(P/\neg P \lor R, Q/\neg P)$ is the formula $\neg P \lor R \rightarrow (\neg P \rightarrow \neg P \lor R)$.
 
In this case, both $W$ and $W(...)$ are both tautologies as $W(...)$ follows from the logic of $W$.
title: Example 2
The formula $(\neg P \lor R \rightarrow \neg P) \rightarrow \neg P \lor R$ is not a subsitution instance of $P \rightarrow (Q \rightarrow P)$.
- Both have a different structure from each other.
If we replace $P$ by $(\neg P \lor R \rightarrow \neg P)$ then we would have to replace $Q$ by $\neg P \lor R$ but we would "miss the consequent of $Q \rightarrow P$".
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Substitution Properties

From , we can assume that .

We can obtain a new equivalence as a substitution instance of the De Morgan law, take the logical equivalence :

  • This new equivalence is also a tautology.
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3. Logical consequence

Logical consequence

Argument

An argument is a sequence of [[Proposition|propositions]].

You can read ”, therefore ”.

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Logical consequence

In a valid argument, we can informally say that conclusion “follows” from a set of premises .

Formally, we say that formula is a logical consequence of the set of formulae , if the following implication holds for every interpretation : $$ \text{If } v(A_i) = 1, \text{ for all } 1 \le i \le n, \text{ then } v(B) = 1. $$

Alternative terminologies include:

  • is a logical consequence of .
  • .
  • The argument is valid.
  • is semantically entailed (or implied) by
  • is a valid consequence of
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Alternate definition of Model

Let the symbol denote the set of all interpretations. Let . We have that

Notice that hence:

Therefore, if , then .

title: Example
Show that $P, P \rightarrow Q \models Q$.
 
| *interpretation* | $p$ | $q$ | $p \rightarrow q$ | $p \land (p \rightarrow q)$ | $q$ |              $\models$              |
|:----------------:|:---:|:---:|:-----------------:|:---------------------------:|:---:|:-----------------------------------:|
|     $v_{0}$      |  0  |  0  |         1         |              0              |  0  |        ✅ **premises false**        | 
|     $v_{1}$      |  0  |  1  |         1         |              0              |  1  |        ✅ **premises false**        |
|     $v_{2}$      |  1  |  0  |         0         |              0              |  0  |        ✅ **premises false**        |
|     $v_{3}$      |  1  |  1  |         1         |              1              |  1  | ✅ **premises and conclusion true** |
 
The statement follows because in every row in which the columns for $P$ and $P \rightarrow Q$ contain $1$ (the premises), so does the column for $Q$ (the conclusion).
 
$$
	\bmod (\{ P, P \rightarrow Q \}) = \{ v_3 \} \subseteq \, \bmod(\{ Q \}) = \{ v_1, v_3 \}
$$
 
This type of derivation is called [[Modus ponens]].

Special case: unsatisfiable premises

Take the following scenario:

  • If Jack takes a holiday, then Jill will be happy and she will not cry.
  • Jack will take a holiday and if Jill is happy she will cry.
  • Therefore Jack will take a holiday.

We define this formally using:

  • Let stand for ‘Jack will take a holiday’
  • Let stand for ‘Jill will be happy’
  • Let stand for ‘Jill will cry’

In this case, the argument is valid. This is because . In general, any conclusion follows from an unsatisfiable set of premises.

Special case: tautological conclusions

Tautologies are always true, so if is a tautology, then .

This has two effects:

  1. A tautology is a logical consequence of any set of formulae.
  2. A tautology also follows from ‘nothing’. Any interpretation satisfies all of the formulae in the empty set, hence . However, if is a tautology, then hence .

Invalid argument

Invalid argument

An argument that is not valid is said to be invalid.

By the definition of logical consequence, if there exists an interpretation such that:

Hence, in order to show a conclusion does not follow from a set of premises, we must find an interpretation that makes all of the premises true, but under which the conclusion is false.

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title: Example 1
Show that $P \not\models Q$ where $P$ and $Q$ are atoms.
 
**Solution**: Take the interpretation $v$ with $v(P) = 1$ and $v(Q) = 0$.
title: Example 2
Show that $P \rightarrow Q \not\models Q$ where $P$ and $Q$ are atoms.
 
**Solution**: Take the interpretation $v$ with $v(P) = 0$ and $v(Q) = 0$.
When $P$ and $Q$ are $0$, it makes $P \rightarrow Q$ true but $Q$ is still false.
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