LOGICAL AND CRITICAL THINKING

CHAPTER NO. 03

LLB SEMESTER 3rd

Propositional Logic
A proposition is the basic building block of logic. It is defined as a sentence
that is either true or false, but not both.
Propositional logic (PL) is the simplest form of logic where all the statements
are made by propositions. A proposition is a declarative statement which is
either true or false. The Truth Value of a proposition is True (denoted as T) if
it is a true statement, and False (denoted as F) if it is a false statement. For
Example,
1. The sun rises in the East and sets in the West.

2. 1 + 1 = 2

3. 'b' is an mathematic sign.

All of the above sentences are propositions, where the first two are (True) and
the third one is (False). Some sentences that do not have a truth value or may
have more than one truth value are not propositions. For Example,

1. What time is it?

2. Go out and play.

3. x + 1 = 2.

For example, "Grass is green", and "2 + 5 = 5" are propositions.

The first proposition has the truth value of "true" and the second "false".

But "Close the door", and "Is it hot outside?" are not propositions.

Also "x is greater than 2", where x is a variable representing a number, is not a
proposition,
because unless a specific value is given to x we cannot say whether it is true or
false, nor do we know what x represents.
The area of logic which deals with propositions is called propositional
calculus or propositional logic. It also includes producing new propositions
using existing ones. Propositions constructed using one or more propositions
are called compound propositions. The propositions are combined together
using Logical Connectives or Logical Operators.
SIMPLE PROPOSITION:

o Propositions are the simple propositions. It consists of a single

proposition symbol. These are the sentences which must be either true or
false.
o 2+2 is 4, it is an simple proposition as it is a true fact.
o b) "The Sun is cold" is also a proposition as it is a false fact.
Compound / Complex proposition:

o Compound proposition: Compound propositions are constructed by

combining simpler propositions, using parenthesis and logical
connectives.

"It is raining today, and street is wet."

Logical Connectives:

Logical connectives are used to connect two simpler propositions or

representing a sentence logically. We can create compound propositions with
the help of logical connectives. There are mainly five connectives, which are
given as follows:

1. Negation: A sentence such as ¬ P is called negation of P. A literal can be

either Positive literal or negative literal.
2. Conjunction: Two proposition combine with And is called conjunction,
sentence which has ∧ connective such as, P ∧ Q is called a conjunction.
 Example: Rohan is intelligent and hardworking. It can be written as,
P= Rohan is intelligent,
Q= Rohan is hardworking. → P∧ Q.
3. Disjunction: A proposition combine with Or is known as Disjunction. A
sentence which has ∨ connective, such as P ∨ Q. is called disjunction,
where P and Q are the propositions.
Example: "Asad is a doctor or Engineer",
Here P= Asad is Doctor. Q= Asad is Engineer, so we can write it as P ∨
Q.
4. Conditional/ Implication: A proposition which has any condition of If –
then is known as conditional sentence such as P → Q, conditional or
Implications are also known as if-then rules. It can be represented as
If it is raining, then the street is wet.
Let P= It is raining, and Q= Street is wet, so it is represented as P →
Q
5. Biconditional: A sentence such as P⇔ Q is a Biconditional sentence,
example If I am breathing, then I am alive
P= I am breathing, Q= I am alive, it can be represented as P ⇔ Q.

Truth Table
Since we need to know the truth value of a proposition in all possible
scenarios, we consider all the possible combinations of the propositions which
are joined together by Logical Connectives to form the given compound
proposition. This compilation of all possible scenarios in a tabular format is
called a truth table. Most Common Logical Connectives-
1. Negation – If p is a proposition, then the negation of is denoted by ¬p ,
which when translated to simple English means- “It is not the case that ”
 or simply “not “. The truth value of is the opposite of the truth value
of proposition. The truth table of will be true iff p is false. • Truth table
for ¬:

p ¬p
F T
T F

Example, The negation of “It is raining today”, is “It is not the case that is
raining today” or simply “It is not raining today”.

2. Conjunction – For any two propositions ‘and’, their conjunction is denoted

by ∧, which means “ and “. The conjunction is ‘True’ when both p and q are
True, otherwise False. The truth table of

p q p∧q

F F F

F T F

T F F

T T T

Example, The conjunction of the propositions – “Today is Friday” and “It is

raining today”. This proposition is true only on rainy Fridays and is false on
any other rainy day or on Fridays when it does not rain.

3. Disjunction – For any two propositions OR , their disjunction is denoted

by ‘ ∨’ which means “ or “.
 p ∨ q: This book is interesting, or I am staying at home.

The disjunction is ‘True’ when either p or q is True, otherwise False. The truth
table of is-

P q p∨q

F F F

F T T

T F T

T T T

4. Conditional/ Implication – For any two propositions and , the statement

“if then ” is called conditional or Implications. Implication Operator,
“if...then...”, → has symbol The implication is also called a conditional
statement. The implication is false when is p true and q is false otherwise it is
true.

The truth table of is-

p q p→q
T T T
T F F
F T T
F F T
You might wonder that why is true when is false. This is because the
implication guarantees that when p and q are true then the implication is true.
But the implication does not guarantee anything when the premise q is false.

5. Bi-conditional or Double Implication – For any two propositions and ,

the statement “ if and only if(iff) ” is called a bi-conditional and it is
denoted BY⇔. and will be true iff either:
1. p and q are both true;
or 2. p and q are both false.
The bi-conditional statement is equivalent to (p → q) ∧ (q → p). In other words,
for p ↔ q to be true we must have both p and q true or both false. The
difference between the implication and bi-conditional operators can often be
confusing, because in our everyday language we sometimes say an “if...then”
statement, p → q, when we actually mean the bi-conditional statement p ↔ q.
Consider the statement you may have heard from your mother (or may have
said to your children): “If you eat your meal, then you may have some ice
cream.” Following the strict logical meaning of the first statement, the child still
may or may not have ice cream even if the meal isn’t eaten. The “if...then”
construction does not indicate what would happen in the case when the
hypothesis is not true. The intent of this statement, however, is most likely that
the child must eat the meal in order to get the ice cream. When we set out to
prove a bi-conditional statement, we often break the proof down into two parts.
First we prove the implication p → q, and then we prove the
Example, “It is raining today if and only if it is Friday today.” is a proposition
which is of the form. The above proposition is true if it is not Friday and it is
not raining or if it is Friday and it is raining, and it is false when it is not
Friday or it is not raining
• The truth table for ⇔ is:
p q p⇔q
F F T
T F F
F T F
T T F

If p ⇔ q is true, then p and q are said to be logically equivalent. They will be

true under exactly the same circumstances.

Limitations of Propositional logic:

o We cannot represent relations like ALL, some, or none with propositional
logic. Example:
1. All the girls are intelligent.
2. Some apples are sweet.
o Propositional logic has limited expressive power.
o In propositional logic, we cannot describe statements in terms of their
properties or logical relationships.