Propositional Logic

Introduction and Syntax

Alice Gao

Lecture 2

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Outline

Learning goals

Propositions and Connectives

Propositional Language

Revisiting the learning goals

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Learning goals

By the end of the lecture, you should be able to

▶ Determine whether an English sentence is a proposition.
▶ Determine whether an English sentence is a simple or
compound proposition.
▶ Determine whether a propositional formula is atomic and/or
well-formed.
▶ Draw the parse tree of a well-formed propositional formula.
▶ Given a propositional formula with no parentheses, make it a
well-formed formula by adding parentheses according to the
precedence rules.

CS 245 Logic and Computation Fall 2019 Alice Gao 3 / 30

Outline

Learning goals

Propositions and Connectives

Propositional Language

Revisiting the learning goals

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Propositions

A proposition is a statement that is either true or false.

Meaningless statements, commands, and questions are not

propositions.

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CQ on proposition

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Examples of propositions

▶ The sum of 3 and 5 is 8.

▶ The sum of 3 and 5 is 35.
▶ Goldbach’s conjecture: Every even number greater than 2 is
the sum of two prime numbers.

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Examples of non-propositions

▶ Question: Where shall we go to eat?

▶ Command: Please pass the salt.
▶ Sentence fragment: The dogs in the park
▶ Non-sensical: Green ideas sleep furiously.
▶ Paradox: This sentence is false.

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Compound and simple propositions

▶ A compound proposition is formed by means of logical

connectives.

The commonly used logical connectives are “not”, “and”,

“or”, “if, then”, and “iff”.

▶ A simple proposition is not compound and cannot be further

divided.

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Interpreting a compound proposition

To interpret a compound proposition, we need to understand the

meanings of the connectives.

Let 𝐴 and 𝐵 be arbitrary propositions.

We will use 1 and 0 to denote true and false respectively.

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Negation

“Not A” is true if and only if A is false.

𝐴 not 𝐴
1 0
0 1

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Conjunction

“A and B” is true if and only if both A and B are true.

𝐴 𝐵 𝐴 and 𝐵
1 1 1
1 0 0
0 1 0
0 0 0

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Disjunction

𝐴 𝐵 𝐴 or 𝐵
1 1 1
1 0 1
0 1 1
0 0 0

“Or” may be interpreted in two ways

▶ The inclusive sense of “A or B or both”
▶ The exclusive sense of “A or B but not both”

In mathematics, the inclusive sense of “or” is commonly used.

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Implication

𝐴 𝐵 if 𝐴 then 𝐵
1 1 1
1 0 0
0 1 1
0 0 1

The only circumstance in which “if A then B” is false is when A is

true and B is false.

Whenever A is false, “if A then B” is vacuously true.

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Equivalence

”A iff B” is the same as ”if A then B, and if B then A”.

iff is pronounced as if and only if.

𝐴 𝐵 𝐴 iff 𝐵
1 1 1
1 0 0
0 1 0
0 0 1

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CQ on compound or simple propositions

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Remarks on connectives

The arity of a connective:

▶ The negation is a unary connective. It only applies to one
proposition.
▶ All other connectives are binary connectives. They apply to
two propositions.

Is a connective symmetric?
▶ And, Or, and Equivalence are symmetric. The order of the
two propositions does not affect the truth value of the
compound proposition.
▶ Implication is not symmetric. If A then B, and if B then A
have different truth values.

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Outline

Learning goals

Propositions and Connectives

Propositional Language

Revisiting the learning goals

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Propositional language 𝐿𝑝

The propositional language 𝐿𝑝 consists of three classes of symbols:

▶ Proposition symbols: 𝑝, 𝑞, 𝑟, … .
▶ Connective symbols: ¬, ∧, ∨, →, ↔.
Oral reading of logical connectives
¬ not negation
∧ and conjunction
∨ or (inclusive) disjunction
→ if, then (imply) implication
↔ iff (equivalent to) equivalence
▶ Punctuation symbols: ( and ).

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Expressions of 𝐿𝑝

▶ expressions are finite strings of symbols. Examples: 𝑝, 𝑝𝑞, (𝑟),

𝑝∧ → 𝑞 and ¬(𝑝 ∧ 𝑞).
▶ The length of an expression is the number of occurrences of
symbols in it.
▶ empty expression: an expression of length 0, denoted by 𝜆.
▶ two expressions 𝑢 and 𝑣 are equal if they are of the same
length and have the same symbols in the same order.
▶ an expression is read from left to right.

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Expression terminologies

▶ 𝑢𝑣 denotes the result of concatenating two expressions 𝑢, 𝑣 in

this order. Note that 𝜆𝑢 = 𝑢𝜆 = 𝑢.
▶ 𝑣 is a segment of 𝑢 if 𝑢 = 𝑤1 𝑣𝑤2 where 𝑢, 𝑣, 𝑤1 , 𝑤2 are
expressions.
𝑣 is a proper segment of 𝑢 if 𝑣 is non-empty and 𝑣 ≠ 𝑢.
If 𝑢 = 𝑣𝑤, where 𝑢, 𝑣, 𝑤 are expressions, then 𝑣 is an initial
segment (prefix) of 𝑢. Similarly, 𝑤 is a terminal segment
(suffix) of 𝑢.

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Atomic formulas

Definition (𝐴𝑡𝑜𝑚(𝐿𝑝 ))
𝐴𝑡𝑜𝑚(𝐿𝑝 ) is the set of expressions of 𝐿𝑝 consisting of a
proposition symbol only.

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Well-formed propositional formulas

Definition (𝐹 𝑜𝑟𝑚(𝐿𝑝 ))
An expression of 𝐿𝑝 is a member of 𝐹 𝑜𝑟𝑚(𝐿𝑝 ) if and only if its
being so follows from (1) - (3):
1. 𝐴𝑡𝑜𝑚(𝐿𝑝 ) ⊆ 𝐹 𝑜𝑟𝑚(𝐿𝑝 ).
2. If 𝐴 ∈ 𝐹 𝑜𝑟𝑚(𝐿𝑝 ), then (¬𝐴) ∈ 𝐹 𝑜𝑟𝑚(𝐿𝑝 ).
3. If 𝐴, 𝐵 ∈ 𝐹 𝑜𝑟𝑚(𝐿𝑝 ), then (𝐴 ∗ 𝐵) ∈ 𝐹 𝑜𝑟𝑚(𝐿𝑝 ) where ∗ is
one of the four binary connectives.
Note that 𝐹 𝑜𝑟𝑚(𝐿𝑝 ) is the minimum set that satisfies the
three conditions above.

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CQ on the first symbol in a well-formed formula

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CQ on well-formed propositional formulas

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Example: Generating Formulas

The following expression is a formula.

((𝑝 ∨ 𝑞) → ((¬𝑝) ↔ (𝑞 ∧ 𝑟)))

How is it generated using the definition of well-formed propositional

formulas? One can use parse trees to analyze formulas.

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Example: Parse Tree

Draw the parse tree for the following formula.

((𝑝 ∨ 𝑞) → ((¬𝑝) ↔ (𝑞 ∧ 𝑟)))

Parse tree:

((𝑝 ∨ 𝑞) → ((¬𝑝) ↔ (𝑞 ∧ 𝑟)))

(𝑝 ∨ 𝑞) ((¬𝑝) ↔ (𝑞 ∧ 𝑟))

𝑝 𝑞 (¬𝑝) (𝑞 ∧ 𝑟)

𝑝 𝑞 𝑟

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Exercise: Parse Trees

Draw the parse tree for the following formula.

(((¬𝑝) ∧ 𝑞) → (𝑝 ∧ (𝑞 ∨ (¬𝑟)))

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Precedence rules: for humans

Consider the following sequence of connectives:

¬, ∧, ∨, →, ↔
Each connective on the left has priority over those on the right.

Examples: Add back the brackets based on the precedence rules.

▶ ¬𝑝 ∨ 𝑞
▶ 𝑝∧𝑞∨𝑟
▶ 𝑝→𝑞↔𝑝
▶ ¬𝑝 → 𝑝 ∧ ¬𝑞 ∨ 𝑟 ↔ 𝑞

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Revisiting the learning goals

By the end of the lecture, you should be able to

▶ Determine whether an English sentence is a proposition.
▶ Determine whether an English sentence is a simple or
compound proposition.
▶ Determine whether a propositional formula is atomic and/or
well-formed.
▶ Draw the parse tree of a well-formed propositional formula.
▶ Given a propositional formula with no parentheses, make it a
well-formed formula by adding parentheses according to the
precedence rules.

CS 245 Logic and Computation Fall 2019 Alice Gao 30 / 30