Guide to Formal Logic Questions –

Existence Statements
Contents
Exercise No. 2: Existence ............................................................................................... 1
Amount statements exercise:................................................................................. 1
Conjunctions: ....................................................................................................... 4

Solutions ..................................................................................................................... 5
Amount statements exercise: ................................................................................. 5
Conjunctions: ........................................................................................................ 7

Exercise No. 2: Existence

In this guide, you will practise the most important concepts of existence statements.
This section will also use the coding system for formulising statements. Here’s a short
reminder (for a longer explanation, refer back to Exercise No. 1):
Sign Meaning Example
 Generalisation A  B - A is B, if A then B.
* Existence *A - There is A, A exists.

~ Negation ~A - Not A, the opposite of A.

The tables below start with an existence structured statement [e.g. (A+B)*some]. After that,
a premise statement will be given, followed by all possible meanings and logical equivalents
to this premise statement. Please fill in the following blanks with the appropriate
equivalents based on the given codes. Besides being able to write the appropriate logical
equivalent, try to understand why these are actually logically equivalent. E.g., how can it
possibly be correct to infer that there is only one paramedic who has combat training from
the following statement: 'Most paramedics have combat training?' (Solutions are provided
at the end of this guide.)

Amount statements exercise:

Some A are B
Coded as: (A+B)*some

Statement: Some paramedics have combat training.

There is at least one A which is B There is at least one paramedic with combat
training.

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Possibly more than one A is B

Maybe all A are B Maybe all paramedics have combat training.

(This is a valid possibility because if all
paramedics did actually have combat training, it
would still be logically true that some
paramedics have combat training.)
Existence of A which is not B –
doesn't follow!

Many/Most/A few A are B

Coded as: (A+B)*Many/Few/A few

Statement: Many/Few/A few paramedics have combat training.

There are certainly more than one There are at least two (more than one)
A which are B paramedics who have combat training.
Maybe all A are B

Existence of A which is not B – We cannot know if there are any paramedics

doesn't follow! who don't have combat training! (This is
because of the valid possibility that all
paramedics have combat training.)

Most A are B
Coded as: (A+B)*most

Statement: Most paramedics have combat training.

There is a portion of A larger than More than half of all paramedics have combat
half, which is B training.
It might be that one A is B

Possibly more than one A is B There is possibly more than one paramedic has
combat training.
Maybe all A are B

Existence of A which is not B –

doesn't follow!

Not all A are B

Coded as: ~ (A  B), or (A + ~B)*not all

Statement: Not all paramedics have combat training.

There is at least one A which is not
B

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 There is possibly more than one A
which is not B
Existence of A which is B – doesn't We cannot know from the original statement if
follow, i.e. there is possibly no A there are any paramedics who actually do have
which is B (all A are not B) combat training. There could possibly be none!
This is because if there were no paramedics
who had combat training, it would still be
logically true that not all paramedics have
combat training.

Only some A are B

Coded as: (A + B)*not all AND (A + ~B)*not all

Statement: Only some paramedics have combat training.

There is at least one A which is B

Possibly more than one A is B

Not all A are B Not all paramedics have combat training! (We
know this because of the keyword 'only', which
tells us that there are also some paramedics
who do not have combat training.)
There is at least one A which is not There is at least one paramedic who doesn't
B have combat training.
Possibly more than one A is not B

Not all A are not B

**Solutions are provided at the end of this guide

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 Conjunctions:
Statement: Police officers do field work (A); police officers do paperwork(B);
Bob is a police officer.

Bob is A and B
It follows that A is true and B is true Bob does both field work and paperwork.

Bob is A or B
Bob could be A Bob could do field work.
Bob could be B
Bob could be A and B
Bob cannot be neither A nor B

Bob is either A or B
Bob could be A
Bob could be B
Bob cannot be both A and B
Bob cannot be neither A nor B

Bob is neither A nor B

Bob is not A and not B

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Solutions

Amount statements exercise:

Some A are B
Coded as: (A+B)*some

Statement: Some paramedics have combat training.

There is at least one A which is B There is at least one paramedic with combat
training.
Possibly more than one A is B There is possibly more than one paramedic with
combat training.
Maybe all A are B Maybe all paramedics have combat training.
(This is a valid possibility, because if all
paramedics do actually have combat training, it
would still be logically true that some
paramedics have combat training.)
Existence of A which is not B – We cannot know if there are any paramedics
doesn't follow! who don't have combat training! (This is
because of the valid possibility that all
paramedics have combat training.)

Many/Most/A few A are B

Coded as: (A+B)*Many/Few/A few

Statement: Many/Few/A few paramedics have combat training.

There are certainly more than one There are at least two (more than one)
A which are B paramedics who have combat training.
Maybe all A are B Maybe all paramedics have combat training.

Existence of A which is not B – We still cannot know if there are any

doesn't follow! paramedics who don't have combat training!
(This is because of the valid possibility that all
paramedics have combat training.)

Most A are B
Coded as: (A+B)*most

Statement: Most paramedics have combat training.

There is a portion of A larger than More than half of all paramedics have combat
half, which is B training.

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It might be that one A is B There is one paramedic who has combat
training. (This is logically valid because of the
unlikely possibility that there is actually only
one paramedic in the world! In this case, it
would be true that most paramedics have
combat training.)
Possibly more than one A is B There is possibly more than one paramedic with
combat training.
Maybe all A are B Maybe all paramedics have combat training.
(This is a valid possibility, because if all
paramedics did actually have combat training, it
would still be logically true that some
paramedics have combat training.)
Existence of A which is not B – We cannot know if there are any paramedics
doesn't follow! who don't have combat training! (This is
because of the valid possibility that all
paramedics have combat training.)

Not all A are B

Coded as: ~ (A  B), or (A + ~B)*not all

Statement: Not all paramedics have combat training.

There is at least one A which is not There is at least one paramedic without combat
B training.
There is possibly more than one A There is possibly more than one paramedic who
which is not B doesn't have combat training.
Existence of A which is B – doesn't We cannot know from the original statement if
follow, i.e. there is possibly no A there are any paramedics who actually do have
which is B (all A are not B) combat training. There could possibly be none!
This is because if there were no paramedics
with combat training, it would still be logically
true that not all paramedics have combat
training.

Only some A are B

Coded as: (A + B)*not all AND (A + ~B)*not all

Statement: Only some paramedics have combat training.

There is at least one A which is B There is at least one paramedic who has combat
training.
Possibly more than one A is B Possibly more than one paramedic has combat
training.
Not all A are B Not all paramedics have combat training! (We
know this because of the keyword 'only', which
tells us that there are also some paramedics
who do not have combat training.)

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 There is at least one A which is not There is at least one paramedic who doesn't
B have combat training.
Possibly more than one A is not B There is possibly more than one paramedic who
doesn't have combat training.
Not all A are not B Not all paramedics don't have combat training
(as we know that at least one does!)

Conjunctions:
Statement: Police officers do field work (A); police officers do paper work (B);
Bob is a police officer.

Bob is A and B
It follows that A is true and B is true Bob does both field work and paperwork.

Bob is A or B
Bob could be A Bob could do field work.
Bob could be B Bob could do paperwork.
Bob could be A and B Bob does both field work and paperwork.
Bob cannot be neither A nor B Bob has to do at least one of the two jobs,
maybe both!

Bob is either A or B
Bob could be A Bob could do field work (but not paperwork).
Bob could be B Bob could do paperwork (but not field work).
Bob cannot be both A and B Bob cannot do both field work and paperwork.
He either does one or the other.
Bob cannot be neither A nor B Bob does field work or paperwork, but not
both!

Bob is neither A nor B

Bob is not A and not B Bob doesn't do field work and also doesn't do
paperwork.

Good luck!

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