Introductory Concepts

Propositional Logic

First Semester, 2023

Department of Mathematics
University of Ghana

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Outline

1 Basics of Logic

2 Logical Operators

3 Logical Equivalence

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Introduction

● In the first two weeks, we will refresh your knowledge of key

concepts you will need in both MATH 121 and MATH 123
courses.
● Make sure you completely understand ALL of the material we
will be discussing for the next six lectures.
● These concepts are foundational; how successful your
(mathematical) building will be depends on how well you have
absorbed the information and understand it.

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Basics of Logic
Basics of Logic

In mathematics, logical constructions are composed of the following

building blocks:
● Statements (also called propositions)
● Logical Operators (also called logical connectives)
● Quantifiers (The phrases ”for all” and ”there exists”)

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Statements

Definition 1
A statement (also known as a proposition) is a declarative sentence
that can be classified as either true or false (but not both).
Example 2
Which of the following are statements?
● I am five feet tall.
● x2 + 5x + 6 = 0.
● What is your name?
● This sentence is false.
● Every even number greater than 2 is the sum of two primes.
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Statements

A simple statement expresses one thought/idea/principle.

However, most mathematical statements are compound statements, which are

constructed from simple statements, joined using logical operators.

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Logical Operators
Logical Operators

● Conditional (→ or ⇒)
● Equivalence (↔ or ⇔)

● Negation (¬ or ∼)
To see how logical operators work,

● Conjunction
we use truth tables. A truth table
(∧)
● Disjunction
shows the possible truth values of a
(∨)
compound statement which is
constructed from simple statements
and logical operators.

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The Negation Operator

The negation operator changes the truth value of a statement. It is

a unary operator.
If p is true, then ¬p is false.
p ¬p
T F
F T
Table 1: Truth table for the negation operator

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The Negation Operator

Example 3
● p ∶ This is level 100 class.
● ¬p ∶ It is not the case that this is a MATH 121 class (or, this is
not a MATH 121 class)

Example 4
● q ∶ The set N of natural numbers is countable
● ¬q ∶ The set N of natural numbers is not countable

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The Conjunction Operator

Definition 5
Let p and q be statements. The conjunction of p and q, denoted
p ∧ q is the statement which is true when both p and q are true,
and false otherwise.
p q p∧q
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F F
Table 2: Truth table for the conjunction operator

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The Conjunction Operator

p ∶ R is a connected set
Example 6

q ∶ R is a compact set
p ∧ q ∶ R is a connected and compact set

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The Disjunction Operator

Definition 7
Let p and q be statements. The disjunction of p and q, denoted
p ∨ q is the statement which is true when either p or q is true (or
both are true), and false otherwise.
p q p∨q
T T T
T F T
F T T
F F F
Table 3: Truth table for the disjunction operator

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The Disjunction Operator

p ∶ S is a convex set
Example 8

q ∶ S is a concave set
p ∨ q ∶ S is either a convex or a concave set

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The Conditional

Definition 9
If p and q are statements, a statement of the form
If p, then q
is called an implication or a conditional statement. It is denoted by
p → q or p ⇒ q.
p q p⇒q
T T T
T F F
F T T
F F T
Table 4: Truth table for the conditional operator 14
The Conditional

Notice that the conditional statement is only false when p is true

and q is false. In all other cases it is true.
We can formulate the conditional statement in a variety of ways,
such as
● if p, then q ● q provided that p
● q if p ● q whenever p
● p implies q ● p is a sufficient condition for q
● p only if q ● q is a necessary condition for p

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The Conditional

In the statement p ⇒ q, the statement p is called the

antecedent
q is the consequent
Example 10
1 If I get 1000 cedis, I will buy a new watch.
2 If n ∈ N is not divisible by 2, then n is an even integer.

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The Biconditional

The biconditional satement p ⇔ q (also denoted p ↔ q) is the

Definition 11

compound statement which is true when p and q have the same

truth values and false otherwise.
p q p⇒q
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F T
Table 5: Truth table for the biconditional operator

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The Biconditional

The biconditional statement p ⇔ q is also called an equivalence. It

can be defined as p ⇔ q = (p ⇒ q) ∧ (q ⇒ p).
Other expressions are:
● p if and only if q
● p i↵ q
● q is a necessary and sufficient condition for p

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Logical Equivalence
Logical Equivalence

Let us consider the following compound statement:

¬(p ∧ q) ⇔ (¬p ∨ ¬q).

The truth table for this statement can be expressed as

p q ¬p ¬q p ∧ q ¬(p ∧ q) ¬p ∨ ¬q
T T F F T F F
T F F T F T T
F T T F F T T
F F T T F T T

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Logical Equivalence

From the table above, we have

p q ¬(p ∧ q) ⇔ ¬p ∨ ¬q
T T T
T F T
F T T
F F T
This means that the statements ¬(p ∧ q) and (¬p ∨ ¬q) are
logically equivalent.

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Logical Equivalence

Definition 12
A statement which is always true is called a tautology.

Two statements p and q are logically equivalent if and only if p ⇔ q

Equivalence and Tautology

is a tautology.

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Example 13
Determine if the following statements are tautologies:
1 ¬(p ∨ q) ⇔ (¬p ∧ ¬q)
2 (p ⇒ q) ⇔ (¬p ∨ q)

Example 14
Construct a truth table for each of the following statements:
1 p ⇒ ¬q
2 [(¬q) ∧ (p ⇒ q)] ⇒ ¬p

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Example 15
Let p be the statement ”The figure is a polygon”, and q be the
statement ”The figure is a circle”. Express each of the following
statements using logical symbols:
1 The figure is a polygon, but it is not a circle.
2 If the figure is not a polygon, then it is a circle.
3 The figure is a polygon i↵ it is not a circle.
4 The figure is a circle whenever it is not a polygon.

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