Foundations of Logic

Mathematical Logic is a tool for working with

elaborate compound statements. It includes:
• A formal language for expressing them.
• A concise notation for writing them.
• A methodology for objectively reasoning
about their truth or falsity.
• It is the foundation for expressing formal
proofs in all branches of mathematics.
Foundations of Logic: Overview
• Propositional logic (§1.1-1.2):
– Basic definitions. (§1.1)
– Equivalence rules & derivations. (§1.2)
• Predicate logic (§1.3-1.4)
– Predicates.
– Quantified predicate expressions.
– Equivalences & derivations.
 Topic #1 – Propositional Logic

Propositional Logic (§1.1)

Propositional Logic is the logic of compound
statements built from simpler statements
using so-called Boolean connectives.
Some applications in computer science: George Boole
(1815-1864)
• Design of digital electronic circuits.
• Expressing conditions in programs.
• Queries to databases & search engines.

Chrysippus of Soli
(ca. 281 B.C. – 205 B.C.)
 Topic #1 – Propositional Logic

Definition of a Proposition
Definition: A proposition (denoted p, q, r, …) is simply:
• a statement (i.e., a declarative sentence)
– with some definite meaning, (not vague or ambiguous)
• having a truth value that’s either true (T) or false (F)
– it is never both, neither, or somewhere “in between!”
• However, you might not know the actual truth value,
• and, the value might depend on the situation or context.
• Later, we will study probability theory, in which we assign degrees
of certainty (“between” T and F) to propositions.
– But for now: think True/False only!
 Topic #1 – Propositional Logic

Examples of Propositions
• “It is raining.” (In a given situation.)
• “Beijing is the capital of China.” • “1 + 2 = 3”
But, the following are NOT propositions:
• “Who’s there?” (interrogative, question)
• “La la la la la.” (meaningless interjection)
• “Just do it!” (imperative, command)
• “Yeah, I sorta dunno, whatever...” (vague)
• “1 + 2” (expression with a non-true/false value)
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

Operators / Connectives
An operator or connective combines one or
more operand expressions into a larger
expression. (E.g., “+” in numeric exprs.)
• Unary operators take 1 operand (e.g., −3);
binary operators take 2 operands (eg 3  4).
• Propositional or Boolean operators operate
on propositions (or their truth values)
instead of on numbers.
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

Some Popular Boolean Operators

Formal Name Nickname Arity Symbol

Negation operator NOT Unary ¬
Conjunction operator AND Binary 
Disjunction operator OR Binary 
Exclusive-OR operator XOR Binary 
Implication operator IMPLIES Binary 
Biconditional operator IFF Binary ↔
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

The Negation Operator

The unary negation operator “¬” (NOT)
transforms a prop. into its logical negation.
E.g. If p = “I have brown hair.”
then ¬p = “I do not have brown hair.”
The truth table for NOT: p p
T F
T :≡ True; F :≡ False
“:≡” means “is defined as” F T
Operand Result
column column
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

The Conjunction Operator

The binary conjunction operator “” (AND)
combines two propositions to form their
logical conjunction. ND
E.g. If p=“I will have salad for lunch.” and
q=“I will have steak for dinner.”, then
pq=“I will have salad for lunch and
I will have steak for dinner.”
Remember: “” points up like an “A”, and it means “ND”
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

Conjunction Truth Table

Operand columns
• Note that a
p q pq
conjunction
p1  p2  …  pn F F F
of n propositions F T F
will have 2n rows T F F
in its truth table. T T T
• Also: ¬ and  operations together are suffi-
cient to express any Boolean truth table!
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

The Disjunction Operator

The binary disjunction operator “” (OR)
combines two propositions to form their
logical disjunction.
p=“My car has a bad engine.” 
q=“My car has a bad carburetor.”
pq=“Either my car has a bad engine, or
my car has a bad carburetor.” After the downward-
pointing “axe” of “”
splits the wood, you
Meaning is like “and/or” in English. can take 1 piece OR the
other, or both.
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

Disjunction Truth Table

• Note that pq means
p q pq
that p is true, or q is
true, or both are true!
F F F
Note
F T T difference
• So, this operation is
T F T from AND
also called inclusive or,
because it includes the T T T
possibility that both p and q are true.
• “¬” and “” together are also universal.
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

Nested Propositional Expressions

• Use parentheses to group sub-expressions:
“I just saw my old friend, and either he’s
grown or I’ve shrunk.” = f  (g  s)
– (f  g)  s would mean something different
– f  g  s would be ambiguous
• By convention, “¬” takes precedence over
both “” and “”.
– ¬s  f means (¬s)  f , not ¬ (s  f)
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

A Simple Exercise
Let p=“It rained last night”,
q=“The sprinklers came on last night,”
r=“The lawn was wet this morning.”
Translate each of the following into English:
¬p = “It didn’t rain last night.”
r  ¬p = “The lawn was wet this morning, and
it didn’t rain last night.”
¬ r  p  q = “Either the lawn wasn’t wet this
morning, or it rained last night, or
the sprinklers came on last night.”
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

The Exclusive Or Operator

The binary exclusive-or operator “” (XOR)
combines two propositions to form their
logical “exclusive or” (exjunction?).
p = “I will earn an A in this course,”
q = “I will drop this course,”
p  q = “I will either earn an A in this course,
or I will drop it (but not both!)”
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

Exclusive-Or Truth Table

• Note that pq means
p q pq
that p is true, or q is
true, but not both!
F F F
F T T
• This operation is
T F T
called exclusive or,
because it excludes the T T F Note
difference
from OR.
possibility that both p and q are true.
• “¬” and “” together are not universal.
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

Natural Language is Ambiguous

Note that English “or” can be ambiguous
regarding the “both” case! p q p "or" q
“Pat is a singer or F F F
Pat is a writer.” -  F T T
“Pat is a man or T F T
Pat is a woman.” -  T T ?
Need context to disambiguate the meaning!
For this class, assume “or” means inclusive.
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

The Implication Operator

antecedent consequent
The implication p  q states that p implies q.
I.e., If p is true, then q is true; but if p is not
true, then q could be either true or false.
E.g., let p = “You study hard.”
q = “You will get a good grade.”
p  q = “If you study hard, then you will get
a good grade.” (else, it could go either way)
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

Examples of Implications
• “If this lecture ends, then the sun will rise
tomorrow.” True or False?
• “If Tuesday is a day of the week, then I am
a penguin.” True or False?
• “If 1+1=6, then Bush is president.”
True or False?
• “If the moon is made of green cheese, then I
am richer than Bill Gates.” True or False?
 Why does this seem wrong?
• Consider a sentence like,
– “If I wear a red shirt tomorrow, then Osama bin Laden
will be captured!”
• In logic, we consider the sentence True so long as
either I don’t wear a red shirt, or Osama is caught.
• But, in normal English conversation, if I were to
make this claim, you would think that I was lying.
– Why this discrepancy between logic & language?
 Resolving the Discrepancy
• In English, a sentence “if p then q” usually really
implicitly means something like,
– “In all possible situations, if p then q.”
• That is, “For p to be true and q false is impossible.”
• Or, “I guarantee that no matter what, if p, then q.”
• This can be expressed in predicate logic as:
– “For all situations s, if p is true in situation s, then q is also
true in situation s”
– Formally, we could write: s, P(s) → Q(s)
• That sentence is logically False in our example,
because for me to wear a red shirt and for Osama to
stay free is a possible (even if not actual) situation.
– Natural language and logic then agree with each other.
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

English Phrases Meaning p  q

• “p implies q” • “p only if q”
• “if p, then q” • “p is sufficient for q”
• “if p, q” • “q is necessary for p”
• “when p, q” • “q follows from p”
• “whenever p, q” • “q is implied by p”
• “q if p” We will see some equivalent
logic expressions later.
• “q when p”
• “q whenever p”
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

Converse, Inverse, Contrapositive

Some terminology, for an implication p  q:

• Its converse is: q  p.
• Its inverse is: ¬p  ¬q.
• Its contrapositive: ¬q  ¬ p.
• One of these three has the same meaning
(same truth table) as p  q. Can you figure
out which?
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

How do we know for sure?

Proving the equivalence of p  q and its
contrapositive using truth tables:
p q q p pq q p
F F T T T T
F T F T T T
T F T F F F
T T F F T T
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

The biconditional operator

The biconditional p  q states that p is true if and
only if (IFF) q is true.
p = “Bush wins the 2004 election.”
q = “Bush will be president for all of 2005.”
p  q = “If, and only if, Bush wins the 2004
election, Bush will be president for all of 2005.”
I’m still
here!

2004 2005
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

Biconditional Truth Table

• p  q means that p and q p q pq
have the same truth value.
F F T
• Note this truth table is the
exact opposite of ’s! F T F
Thus, p  q means ¬(p  q) T F F
• p  q does not imply T T T
that p and q are true, or cause each other.
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

Boolean Operations Summary

• We have seen 1 unary operator (out of the 4
possible) and 5 binary operators (out of the
16 possible). Their truth tables are below.
p q p pq pq pq pq pq
F F T F F F T T
F T T F T T T F
T F F F T T F F
T T F T T F T T
 Topic #1.0 – Propositional Logic: Operators

Some Alternative Notations

N
a
me: no
ta
ndo
rxo
rimp
l
ies i
ff
P
r
oposi
ti
onall
ogic
: 
B
ool
eanalg
ebra
: ppq+
C
/C++/
Java(wor
dw i
se)
:! &&|
| !
= ==
C
/C++/
Java(b
it
w i
se)
: ~&|^
L
og
i
c g
at
es:
 Topic #2 – Bits

Bit Strings
• A Bit string of length n is an ordered series
or sequence of n0 bits.
– More on sequences in §3.2.
• By convention, bit strings are written left to
right: e.g. the first bit of “1001101010” is 1.
• When a bit string represents a base-2
number, by convention the first bit is the
most significant bit. Ex. 11012=8+4+1=13.
 Topic #2 – Bits

Counting in Binary
• Did you know that you can count
to 1,023 just using two hands?
– How? Count in binary!
• Each finger (up/down) represents 1 bit.
• To increment: Flip the rightmost (low-order) bit.
– If it changes 1→0, then also flip the next bit to the left,
• If that bit changes 1→0, then flip the next one, etc.
• 0000000000, 0000000001, 0000000010, …
…, 1111111101, 1111111110, 1111111111
 End of §1.1
You have learned about: • Atomic vs. compound
• Propositions: What propositions.
they are. • Alternative notations.
• Propositional logic • Bits and bit-strings.
operators’
– Symbolic notations. • Next section: §1.2
– English equivalents. – Propositional
– Logical meaning. equivalences.
– Truth tables. – How to prove them.