LESSON 2.

3: ELEMENTARY LOGIC

A statement or proposition is a declarative sentence which is true or false, but not both. The
truth or falsity of a statement is called its truth value.

EXAMPLE:
Consider the following sentences:
1. Manila is the capital city of the Philippines. 6. No way!
2. Zero is a rational number. 7. Dogs can fly.
3. Where are you going? 8. 15 ÷ 3= 5
4. If x=-3, then 2x + 5= 11. 9. 10 < 7
5. Please return my ballpen. 10. 2 is prime number.

All of them are statements except 3, 5, and 6. Moreover, the truth value of the statements 1, 2, 8,
and 10 is true, and the truth value of the statements 4, 7, and 9 is false. Questions, commands, and
exclamations are not statements because they cannot labeled as true or false.

Definition of Simple and Compound Proposition

A proposition is simple if it conveys single idea and compound if it conveys two or more ideas.

Consider the following propositions.

(1) 2 is an even number.
(2) 2 is an even and a prime number.
Above are two basic examples of propositions but the difference is that, statement (1) conveys a
single idea, i.e. 2 being an even number, unlike statement (2) that conveys two ideas, one being 2 as an
even number and the other as 2 being a prime number. Hence, statement (1) is simple and statement (2)
is compound.

LOGICAL CONNECTIVES

1. Negations
Symbolically, “~p” which is read as “negate p”.

Definition: If p is true, then ~p is false; and if p is false, then ~p is true.

Truth table of Negation

Example:
Write the negation of each of the following statements.
1. Manila City is in the Philippines.
2. He is incompetent.
3. The product of two odd integers is even.
Answer:
For each number, statements (a) and (b) are negation of the given statement.
1. a. Manila City is not in the Philippines.
b. It is not the case that Manila City is in the Philippines.
2. a. He is competent.
b. It is not the case that he is incompetent.
3. a. The product of two odd integers is odd.
b. The product of two odd integers is not even.
2. Conjunctions
Keyword: and
Symbolically, “p ˄ q” which is read as “p and q”.

Definition: If p and q are true, then p ˄ q is true; otherwise p ˄ q is false.

Truth table of Conjunction

Example:
Consider the following statements.
1. Manila City is in Philippines and 4 5 < 20.
2. Manila City is in Philippines and 4 5 = 20.
3. Manila City is in Malaysia and 4 5 = 20.
4. Manila City is in Malaysia and 4 5 20.
Answer:
Only the second statement is true since both constituent sentences are true. Each of the other
statements is false since at least one of its constituent sentences is false.

3. Disjunctions
Keyword: or
Symbolically, “p ˅ q” which is read as “p or q”.

Definition: If p and q are false, then p ˅ q is false; otherwise p ˅ q is true.

Truth table of Disjunction

Example:
Consider the following statements.
1. Manila City is in Philippines or 4 5 < 20.
2. Manila City is in Philippines or 4 5 = 20.
3. Manila City is in Malaysia or 4 5 = 20.
4. Manila City is in Malaysia or 4 5 20.

Answer:
Only the fourth statement is false since both constituent sentences are false. Each of the other
statements is true since at least one of its constituent sentences is true.

4. Conditional
A compound statement formed by connecting two statements with the word “if…, then” is called a
conditional. Symbolically, “p q” which is read as “If p, then q” or “p implies q”. The statement p is
called the antecedent of the conditional and statement q is the consequent of the conditional. In
this case, the resulting sentence is only false whenever the antecedent is true and the consequent is false
and is true otherwise.
 Truth table of Conditional

Example:
Construct the conditional statement and write its truth value.
1. The antecedent, p, is “4 is a natural number.” And the consequent, q, is “ is not an integer.”
Answer: If 4 is a natural number, then is not an integer. (True, because p and q are true.)
2. The antecedent, p, is “4 is not a natural number.” And the consequent, q, is “ is an integer.”
Answer: If 4 is not a natural number, then is an integer. (True, because p and q are false.)
3. The antecedent, p, is “4 is not a natural number.” And the consequent, q, is “ is not an integer.”
Answer: If 4 is not a natural number, then is not an integer. (True, because p is false and q is true.)
4. The antecedent, p, is “4 is a natural number.” And the consequent, q, is “ is an integer.”
Answer: If 4 is a natural number, then is an integer. (False, because p is true and q is false.)

5. Biconditional
A compound statement formed by connecting two statements with the word “if and only if” is
called a biconditional. Symbolically, “p q” which is read as “p if and only if q”. The biconditional
statement is actually formed by the conjunction of the conditional statements “p q” and “q p”. In this
case, the resulting sentences is true whenever the antecedent p as well as the consequent q have the
same truth values and false otherwise.

Truth table of Biconditional

Example:
Construct the biconditional statement and write its truth value.
1. The antecedent, p, is “4 is a natural number.” And the consequent, q, is “ is not an integer.”
Answer: If 4 is a natural number if and only if is not an integer. (True, because p and q are true.)
2. The antecedent, p, is “4 is not a natural number.” And the consequent, q, is “ is an integer.”
Answer: If 4 is not a natural number if and only if is an integer. (True, because p and q are false.)
3. The antecedent, p, is “4 is not a natural number.” And the consequent, q, is “ is not an integer.”
Answer: If 4 is not a natural number if and only if is not an integer. (False, because p is false and q is
true.)
4. The antecedent, p, is “4 is a natural number.” And the consequent, q, is “ is an integer.”
Answer: If 4 is a natural number if and only if is an integer. (False, because p is true and q is false.)
Constructing Truth Table
When you're constructing a truth table, you have to consider all possible assignments of True (T)
and False (F) to the component statements. For example, suppose the component statements are P, Q,
and R. Each of these statements can be either true or false, so there (Formula:
are possibilities.

EXAMPLE: Construct the truth table of the following.

1.
Start with p and q and then the not p column. After that get the truth value of p or q.

p q ~p
T T F T
T F F F
F T T T
F F T T
2.
Start with p and q and then the not p column, followed by not q column. After that get the
truth value of p and q.

p q ~p ~q
T T F F F
T F F T F
F T T F F
F F T T T

3. ( ) (
Start with p, q, and r then followed by p and q column. After that get the truth value of
(p q) as well as of r. Finally, get the truth value of (p q) ( r).

p q r ~( ) ~r ( (

T T T T F F F
T T F T F T T
T F T F T F T
T F F F T T T
F T T F T F T
F T F F T T T
F F T F T F T
F F F F T T T
 4. ( )

Start with p, q, and r then followed by if q, then p column. Finally, get the truth value of
( ) .

p q r (

T T T T T
T T F T F
T F T T T
T F F T F
F T T F F
F T F F T
F F T T T
F F F T F

The Conditional Statement

If we let P and Q be propositions and P Q be the given conditional proposition, then we define
the following.
a. Q P is the converse;
b. ~P ~Q is the inverse; and
c. ~Q ~P is the contrapositive of the given conditional statement.

Remark: The truth value of the contrapositive follows from that of the given conditional. On the other
hand, the truth values of the inverse and converse do not directly follow from the truth value of the given
conditional but they are always the same. For instance, if the given conditional is true, then its
contrapositive is also true but its converse and inverse may or may not be true. So, only the truth value of
the contrapositive depends on the truth value of the given conditional.

Example:
If the given conditional is the statement (a) “If a quadrilateral is a square, then it is a rectangle.”

Given the above conditional, our premise P is “a quadrilateral is a square” and our conclusion Q is “it is a
rectangle ” or “the quadrilateral is a rectangle ”. Hence, the converse, inverse, and contrapositive of the
given conditional are;
(b) Converse: If the quadrilateral is a rectangle, then it is a square.
(c) Inverse: If the quadrilateral is not a square, then it is not a rectangle.
(d) Contrapositive: If the quadrilateral is not a rectangle, then it is not a square.

Further, examining the truth values, we identify first the truth value of the given conditional.
Statement (a) is TRUE since all squares are rectangles and hence, the contrapositive (d) is also TRUE.
Aside from the fact that the truth value of (d) follows from that of (a), we can also directly argue that once
a quadrilateral is not a rectangle, then there’s no chance that it could be a square, hence (d) is true. On
the other hand, the converse (b) and the inverse (c) are both FALSE, since for (b), it does necessarily
follow that if a quadrilateral is a rectangle, then it must be a square. There exist rectangles which are not
squares. Notice that the truth values of (b) and (c) do not follow from that of (a) and (d).
Negation of Compound Propositions
The process of negating compound propositions does not only focus on negating the verbs of the
components but also on the connective used. The following table summarizes this concept.
Table Summarizing the Negation of Compound Propositions

Consider the following compound propositions.

(a) 2 is an even number and a prime number.
(b) 2 is an even number or a prime number
(c) If 280 is an even number, then it is divisible by 2.
Statement (a) is a conjunction with component propositions “2 is an even number” and “2 is a
prime number ”, thus, negating it we need to negate each component and change conjunction to
disjunction. By doing so, the following statement is the negation of (a); 2 is not an even number or not
a prime number.

For the case of statement of (b), it has the same process as that of (a) but we need to change the
disjunction to conjunction. Hence, the negation of (b) is the statement 2 is not an even number and
not a prime number. The above statement can be restated as 2 is neither even nor prime.

Lastly, for statement (c), our premise is “280 is an even number” and our conclusions is “it
is divisible by 2”. In negating conditionals, the premise remains as is while the conclusion is negated.
Then, the resulting propositions will be connected by conjunction. Hence, the negation of statement (c) is
280 is an even number but not divisible by 2. Notice that instead of using the typical “and” as English
translation for conjunction, we used “but” for the reason that the ideas presented by the components of
the negation contradict each other.

Quantifiers and Categorical Propositions

(Note: In this lesson, I suggest to please re-read your Lesson 2.1 and 2.2 in your module in order
for you to familiarize some mathematical symbols.)

A quantifier could either be existential or universal, where an existential quantifier is a prefix

used to assert the existence of something, whereas a universal quantifier either denies the existence of
something or asserts that all objects or elements of a given set satisfy some conditions.

A. Universal Quantifiers
The universal quantifier, denoted by , refers to the phrase “for all” or “for every” or “for each”. Let
P(x) be a formula defined on a set D. Then the expression ( y D) P(y) or y P(y) is read as “For each y
in D, P(y) is a true statement” or simply, “For every y, P(y)”. The universal quantifier asserts that the
formula holds for any value of y (the value as being taken from some given universe or the set of objects
of interest).
Examples:
Define R to be the set of real numbers, and N the set of natural number.
A. The statement is true since the square of any real number is always nonnegative.
B. The statement is false since 2 is a natural number and 2 – 5 = -3 0.
C. The statement is true since the real numbers is commutative under
addition.
 B. Existential Quantifier

The existential quantifier, denoted by , refers to the phrase “there exists” or “for at least one” or
“for some”. Let P(x) be a formula defined on a set D. Then the expression ( y D) P(y) or y P(y) is read
as “There exist y in D such that P(y) is a true statement” or simply, “For some y, P(y)”. The existential
quantifier asserts that the formula holds for at least one value of y (the value as being taken from some
given universe).

Examples:
Define R to be the set of real numbers, N the set of natural number, and Z the set of integers.

1. The statement is true since if we choose x = 4, then .

2. The statement is true since if we choose x= 2, a natural number,
then 2 – 5 = -3 0.
3. The statement is false since x must be equal to to make the equation true, and
is not an integer.

Negation of Quantified and Categorical Propositions

To negate a quantified statement or expression, we simply change the quantifier to the other type
and then, negate the predicate. In symbols, we have the following table summarizing the negation of the
quantified statements and categorical propositions.

EXAMPLE 1

Suppose we have the following quantified statements.

a.
b. √

SOLUTION: The negation of (a) is written as . Notice that statement (a) is true since
the set of real numbers is closed under addition, i.e. the sum of any two real numbers is also real and its
negation is false. Moreover, the negation of statement (b) is the statement √ . The latter can
also be written as √ since if it is not greater than 0, then it is less than or equal to 0. Here,
statement (b) is true, hence, its negation is false.

EXAMPLE 2
Given the categorical proposition All squares are rectangles, when negated yields the
statement Some squares are not rectangles . Note that the given propositions is true and its
negation is false since whenever a quadrilateral is a square, then it is considered as a rectangle. In
Geometry, squares as quadrilaterals inherit all of the properties of rectangles.

EXAMPLE 3
Given the statement Some integers are negative, when negated yields the statement
No integers are negative. The given proposition is true and its negation is false since an integer could
either be positive, negative, or 0.

Propositional Equivalences
A compound statement is a tautology if its truth value is always T, regardless of the truth
values of the statements of which it is composed. It is a contradiction if its truth value is always F,
regardless of the truth values of its variable. Otherwise it is contingency.
Example 1:

If we have the proposition ( ( , using the truth table, we have;

p q ( (
T T T T T
T F T T T
F T T T T
F F F F T

Since the truth values are true for all combinations, the given proposition is a tautology.

Example 2:
Suppose we have the proposition ( . The truth table for it is given below.

p q (
T T T F F
T F F T F
F T F F F
F F F T F

Since all truth values are false, the given proposition is a contradiction.

Example 3:

Suppose we have the proposition . The truth table for it is given below.

p q ~p
T T F T
T F F F
F T T T
F F T T

Since the truth values are different, the given proposition is a contingency.