TRUTH FUNCTIONAL

CONNECTIVES
 1. INTRODUCTION
• In the previous chapter we briefly examined one level of
logical analysis, the level of syllogistic logic. In syllogistic
logic, the logical terms include ‘all’, ‘some’, ‘no’, ‘are’, and
‘not’, and the descriptive terms are all expressions that
denote classes.
• In this chapter, we examine a different branch of logic,
which represents a different level of logical analysis;
specifically, we examine sentential logic (also called
propositional logic and statement logic). In sentential
logic, the logical terms are truth-functional statement
connectives, and nothing else.
 2. STATEMENT CONNECTIVES
• A (statement) connective is an expression
with one or more blanks (places) such that,
whenever the blanks are filled by statements
the resulting expression is also a statement.
• In other words, a (statement) connective takes one or
more smaller statements and forms a larger statement.
The following is a simple example of a connective.
___________ and ____________
• To say that this expression is a connective is to say that
if we fill each blank with a statement then we obtain
another statement. The following are examples of
statements obtained in this manner.
• (e1) snow is white and grass is green
• (e2) all cats are felines and some felines are not cats
• (e3) it is raining and it is sleeting
• Notice that the blanks are filled with statements and
the resulting expressions are also statements.
• The following are further examples of connectives,
which are followed by particular instances.
• (c1) it is not true that __________________
• (c2) the president believes that ___________
• (c3) it is necessarily true that ____________
• (i1) it is not true that all felines are cats
• (i2) the president believes that snow is white
• (i3) it is necessarily true that 2+2=4
• (c4) __________ or __________
• (c5) if __________ then __________
• (c6) __________ only if __________
• (c7) __________ unless __________
• (i4) it is raining or it is sleeting
• (i5) if it is raining then it is cloudy
• (i6) I will pass only if I study
• (i7) I will play tennis unless it rains
• (c8) __________ if __________; otherwise
__________
• (c9) __________ unless __________ in which
case __________
• (i8) I will play tennis if it is warm; otherwise I
will play racquetball
• (i9) I will play tennis unless it rains in which
case I will play squash
• At this point, it is useful to introduce a further pair of
definitions.
• A compound statement is a statement that is
constructed from one or more smaller statements by the
application of a statement connective.
• A simple statement is a statement that is not constructed
out of smaller statements by the application of a
statement connective.
• We have already seen many examples of compound
statements. The following are examples of simple
statements.
• (s1) snow is white
• (s2) grass is green
• (s3) I am hungry
• (s4) it is raining
• In all the examples we have considered so far, the
constituent statements are all simple statements. A
connective can also be applied to compound
statements, as illustrated in the following example.
it is not true that all swans are white,
and
the president believes that all swans are white
• In this example, the two-place connective ‘...and...’
connects the following two statements,
• it is not true that all swans are white
• the president believes that all swans are white
which are themselves compound statements. Thus, in
this example, there are three connectives involved:
it is not true that...
...and...
the president believes that...
• The above statement can in turn be used to form an
even larger compound statement. For example, we
combine it with the following (simple) statement,
using the two-place connective ‘if...then...’.
• the president is fallible
• We accordingly obtain the following
compound statement.
IF it is not true that all swans are white,
AND the president believes that all swans
are white,
THEN the president is fallible
• There is no theoretical limit on the complexity of
compound statements constructed using statement
connectives; in principle, we can form compound
statements that are as long as we please (say a
billion miles long!). However, there are practical
limits to the complexity of compound statements,
due to the limitation of space and time, and the
limitation of human minds to comprehend
excessively long and complex statements.
 3. TRUTH-FUNCTIONAL STATEMENT
CONNECTIVES
• In logic, a truth function is a function that accepts 
truth values as input and produces a truth value as
output, i.e., the input and output are all truth values.
The typical example is in propositional logic, wherein a
compound statement is constructed by one or two
statements connected by a logical connective; if the
truth value of the compound statement is determined
by the truth value(s) of the constituent statement(s),
the compound statement is called a truth function, and
the logical connective is said to be truth functional.[2]
• A logical connective is truth-functional if the truth-
value of a compound sentence is a function of the
truth-value of its sub-sentences. A class of
connectives is truth-functional if each of its
members is. For example, the connective "and" is
truth-functional since a sentence like "Apples are
fruits and carrots are vegetables" is true 
if, and only if each of its sub-sentences "apples are
fruits" and "carrots are vegetables" is true, and it is
false otherwise.
 4. CONJUNCTION
• [Note: In traditional grammar, the word ‘conjunction’ is used to
refer to any two-place statement connective. However, in logic, the
word ‘conjunction’ refers exclusively to one connective – ‘and’.]
• Conjunction is a two-place connective. In other words, if we have
two statements (simple or compound), we can form a compound
statement by combining them with ‘and’. Thus, for example, we can
combine the following two statements
it is raining
it is sleeting
to form the compound statement
it is raining and it is sleeting.
• In order to aid our analysis of logical form in
sentential logic, we employ various symbolic devices.
First, we abbreviate simple statements by upper case
Roman letters. The letter we choose will usually be
suggestive of the statement that is abbreviated; for
example, we might use ‘R’ to abbreviate ‘it is raining’,
and ‘S’ to abbreviate ‘it is sleeting’.
• Second, we use special symbols to abbreviate (truth-
functional) connectives. For example, we abbreviate
conjunction (‘and’) by the ampersand sign (‘&’).
Putting these abbreviations together, we abbreviate
the above compound as follows.
R&S
• Conjunction is a truth-functional connective.
This means that if we know the truth value of
each conjunct, we can simply compute the
truth value of the conjunction. Consider the
simple statements R and S. Individually, these
can be true or false, so in combination, there
are four cases, given in the following table.
• Now consider the conjunction formed out of
these two statements: R&S. What is the truth
value of R&S in each of the above cases? Well,
it seems plausible that the conjunction R&S is
true if both the conjuncts are true individually,
and R&S is false if either conjunct is false. This
is summarized in the following table.
 5. DISJUNCTION
• The second truth-functional connective we consider is
called disjunction, which corresponds roughly to the
English ‘or’. Like conjunction, disjunction is a two-place
connective: given any two statements S1 and S2, we can
form the compound statement ‘S1 or S2’. For example,
beginning with the following simple statements,
• (s1) it is raining R
• (s2) it is sleeting S
• we can form the following compound statement.
• (c) it is raining or it is sleeting R ∨ S
• The symbol for disjunction is ‘∨’ (wedge). Just
as R&S is called the conjunction of R and S,
R∨S is called the disjunction of R and S.
• Similarly, just as the constituents of a
conjunction are called conjuncts, the
constituents of a disjunction are called
disjuncts.
 Disjunction: exclusive sense and the
inclusive sense
• In English, the word ‘or’ has at least two different
meanings, or senses, which are respectively called the
exclusive sense and the inclusive sense. The
exclusive sense is typified by the following sentences.
• (e1) would you like a baked potato, OR French fries
• (e2) would you like squash, OR beans
• In answering these questions, you cannot choose
both disjuncts; choosing one disjunct excludes
choosing the other disjunct.
• On the other hand, the inclusive sense of
disjunction is typified by the following sentences.
• (i1) would you like coffee or dessert
• (i2) would you like cream or sugar with your
coffee
• In answering these questions, you can choose
both disjuncts; choosing one disjunct does not
exclude choosing the other disjunct as well.
Disjunction: Rules of thumb
 6. A STATEMENT CONNECTIVE THAT IS NOT
TRUTH-FUNCTIONAL
• Conjunction (&) and disjunction (∨) are both
truth-functional connectives. In the present
section, we discuss a connective that is not truth-
functional – namely, the connective ‘because’.
• Like conjunction (‘and’) and disjunction (‘or’),
‘because’ is a two-place connective; given any
two statements S1 and S2, we can form the
compound statement ‘S1 because S2’. For
example, given the following simple statements
• (s1) I am sad S
• (s2) it is raining R
• we can form the following compound statements.
• (c1) I am sad because it is raining S because R
• (c2) it is raining because I am sad R because S
• The simple statements (s1) and (s2) can be
individually true or false, so there are four
possible combinations of truth values. The
question is, for each combination of truth values,
what is the truth value of each resulting
compound.
• First of all, it seems fairly clear that if either of
the simple statements is false, then the
compound is false. On the other hand, if both
statements are true, then it is not clear what
the truth value of the compound is. This is
summarized in the following partial truth
table.
• Suppose both S (‘I am sad’) and R (‘it is
raining’) are true. What can we say about the
truth value of ‘S because R’ and ‘R because S’?
Well, at least in the case Of it is raining
because I am sad, we can safely assume that it
is false.
• On the other hand, in the case of
• I am sad because it is raining,
• we cannot say whether it is true, or whether it
is false. Merely knowing that the speaker is
sad and that it is raining, we do not know
whether the rain is responsible for the
sadness. It might be, it might not.
 7. NEGATION
• In the present section, we examine a one-
place connective, negation, which
corresponds to the word ‘not’. If we wish to
deny a statement, for example,
• it is raining,
• the easiest way is to insert the word ‘not’ in a
strategic location, thus yielding
• it is not raining.
• We can also deny the original statement by
prefixing the whole sentence by the modifier
• it is not true that
to obtain
• it is not true that it is raining
the negation connective (~) is truth-functional.
• Furthermore, the second strategy employs a
statement connective. In particular, the expression
• it is not true that ______________
• meets our criterion to be a one-place connective; its
single blank can be filled by any statement, and the
result is also a statement.
• This one-place connective is called negation, and is
symbolized by ‘~’ (tilde), which is a stylized form of ‘n’,
short for negation. The following are variant negation
expressions.
• it is false that __________________
• it is not the case that ____________
 8. THE CONDITIONAL
• In the present section, we introduce one of the two
remaining truth-functional connectives that are
customarily studied in sentential logic – the conditional
connective, which corresponds to the expression
• if ___________, then ___________.
• The conditional connective is a two-place connective,
which is to say that we can replace the two blanks in
the above expression by any two statements, then the
resulting expression is also a statement.
For example, we can take the following simple statements.
• (1) I am relaxed
• (2) I am happy
and we can form the following conditional statements,
using if-then.
• (c1) if I am relaxed, then I am happy
• (c2) if I am happy, then I am relaxed
• The symbol used to abbreviate if-then is the arrow (→),
so the above compounds can be symbolized as follows.
• (s1) R → H
• (s2) H → R
the antecedent and the consequent
Every conditional statement divides into two
constituents, which do not play equivalent roles (in
contrast to conjunction and disjunction). The
constituents of a conditional A→C are respectively
called the antecedent and the consequent. The word
‘antecedent’ means “that which leads”, and the word
‘consequent’ means “that which follows”. In a
conditional, the first constituent is called the
antecedent, and the second constituent is called the
consequent.
When a conditional is stated in standard form in
English, it is easy to identify the antecedent and
the consequent, according to the following rule.
 9. THE NON-TRUTH-FUNCTIONAL VERSION
OF IF-THEN
• In English, if-then is used in a variety of ways, many of which
are not truth functional. Consider the following conditional
statements.
• if I lived in L.A., then I would live in California
• if I lived in N.Y.C., then I would live in California
• The constituents of these two conditionals are given as
follows; note that they are individually stated in the indicative
mood, as required by English grammar.
• L: I live in L.A. (Los Angeles)
• N: I live in N.Y.C. (New York City)
• C: I live in California
• Now, for the author at least, all three simple
statements are false. But what about the two
conditionals? Well, it seems that the first one is
true, since L.A. is entirely contained inside
California (presently!). On the other hand, it seems
that the second one is false, since N.Y.C. does not
overlap California.
• Thus, in the first case, two false constituents yield
a true conditional, but in the second case, two
false constituents yield a false conditional. It
follows that the conditional connective employed
in the above conditionals is not truth-functional.
 10. THE TRUTH-FUNCTIONAL VERSION OF
IF-THEN
• By way of motivating the truth table for the truth-functional
version of ‘if-then’, we consider conditional promises and
conditional requests. Consider the following promise (made
to the intro logic student by the intro logic instructor).
• if you get a hundred on every exam, then I will give you an
A
• which may be symbolized
• H→A
• Now suppose that the semester ends; under what
circumstances has the instructor kept his/her promise. The
relevant circumstances may be characterized as follows.