|
1275 | 1275 | </example>
|
1276 | 1276 | </subsection>
|
1277 | 1277 |
|
1278 |
| - <subsection> |
1279 |
| - <title>Beyond |
1280 |
| - Propositions</title> |
1281 |
| - <p> As we saw in <xref ref="sec_logic-statements" />, not every statement can |
1282 |
| - be analyzed using logical connectives alone. For example, we might want to work with the |
1283 |
| - statement: </p> |
1284 |
| - |
1285 |
| - <blockquote> |
1286 |
| - <p> |
1287 |
| - All primes greater than 2 are odd. |
1288 |
| - </p> |
1289 |
| - </blockquote> |
1290 |
| - |
1291 |
| - <p> To write this |
1292 |
| - statement symbolically, we must use quantifiers. We can translate as follows: <me> |
1293 |
| - \forall x ((P(x) \wedge x \gt 2) \imp O(x)) |
1294 |
| - </me>. In this case, we are using <m> |
1295 |
| - P(x)</m> to denote <q><m>x</m> is prime</q> and <m>O(x)</m> to denote <q><m>x</m> is odd.</q> These are not |
1296 |
| - propositions, since their truth value depends on the input <m>x</m>. Better to think of <m>P</m> and <m> |
1297 |
| - O</m> as denoting <em>properties</em> of their input. The technical term for these is <term>predicates</term> |
1298 |
| - and when we study them in logic, we need to use <term>predicate logic</term>. </p> |
1299 |
| - |
1300 |
| - <p> It is important |
1301 |
| - to stress that predicate logic <em>extends</em> propositional logic (much in the way quantum |
1302 |
| - mechanics extends classical mechanics). You will notice that our statement above still used |
1303 |
| - the (propositional) logical connectives. Everything that we learned about logical equivalence |
1304 |
| - and deductions still applies. However, predicate logic allows us to analyze statements at a |
1305 |
| - higher resolution, digging down into the individual propositions <m>P</m>, <m>Q</m>, etc. </p> |
1306 |
| - |
1307 |
| - <p> |
1308 |
| - A full treatment of predicate logic is beyond the scope of this text. |
1309 |
| - One reason is that there is no systematic procedure for deciding whether two statements in |
1310 |
| - predicate logic are logically equivalent (i.e., there is no analogue to truth tables here). |
1311 |
| - Rather, we end with a two examples of logical equivalence and deduction, |
1312 |
| - to pique your interest. |
1313 |
| - </p> |
1314 |
| - |
1315 |
| - <example> |
1316 |
| - <statement> |
1317 |
| - <p> |
1318 |
| - Suppose we claim that there is no smallest number. We can translate this into symbols as <me> |
1319 |
| - \neg \exists x \forall y (x \le y) |
1320 |
| - </me> (literally, <q>it is not |
1321 |
| - true that there is a number <m>x</m> such that for all numbers <m>y</m>, <m>x</m> is less than or |
1322 |
| - equal to <m>y</m></q>). </p> |
1323 |
| - |
1324 |
| - <p> However, we know how negation interacts with quantifiers: we can |
1325 |
| - pass a negation over a quantifier by switching the quantifier type (between universal and |
1326 |
| - existential). So the statement above should be <em>logically equivalent</em> to <me> |
1327 |
| - \forall x \exists y (y \lt x) |
1328 |
| - </me>. Notice that <m>y \lt x</m> is |
1329 |
| - the negation of <m>x \le y</m>. This literally says, <q>for every number <m>x</m> there is a number <m> |
1330 |
| - y</m> which is smaller than <m>x</m>.</q> We see that this is another way to make our |
1331 |
| - original claim. </p> |
1332 |
| - </statement> |
1333 |
| - </example> |
1334 |
| - |
1335 |
| - <example> |
1336 |
| - <statement> |
1337 |
| - <p> Can you switch the order of |
1338 |
| - quantifiers? For example, consider the two statements: <me> |
1339 |
| - \forall x \exists y P(x,y) \qquad \mathrm{ and } \qquad \exists y \forall x P(x,y) |
1340 |
| - </me>. |
1341 |
| - Are these logically equivalent? </p> |
1342 |
| - </statement> |
1343 |
| - <solution> |
1344 |
| - <p> These statements are NOT logically |
1345 |
| - equivalent. To see this, we should provide an interpretation of the predicate <m>P(x,y)</m> |
1346 |
| - which makes one of the statements true and the other false. </p> |
1347 |
| - |
1348 |
| - <p> Let <m>P(x,y)</m> be the |
1349 |
| - predicate <m>x \lt y</m>. It is true, in the natural numbers, that for all <m>x</m> there is |
1350 |
| - some <m>y</m> greater than that <m>x</m> (since there are infinitely many numbers). However, |
1351 |
| - there is not a natural number <m>y</m> which is greater than every number <m>x</m>. Thus it is |
1352 |
| - possible for <m>\forall x \exists y P(x,y)</m> to be true while <m>\exists y \forall x P(x,y)</m> |
1353 |
| - is false. </p> |
1354 |
| - |
1355 |
| - <p> We cannot do the reverse of this though. If there is some <m>y</m> for which |
1356 |
| - every <m>x</m> satisfies <m>P(x,y)</m>, then certainly for every <m>x</m> there is some <m>y</m> which |
1357 |
| - satisfies <m>P(x,y)</m>. The first is saying we can find one <m>y</m> that works for every <m>x</m>. |
1358 |
| - The second allows different <m>y</m>'s to work for different <m>x</m>'s, but there is nothing |
1359 |
| - preventing us from using the same <m>y</m> that work for every <m>x</m>. In other words, while |
1360 |
| - we don't have logical equivalence between the two statements, we do have a valid deduction |
1361 |
| - rule: </p> |
1362 | 1278 |
|
1363 |
| - <sidebyside> |
1364 |
| - |
1365 |
| - <tabular halign="center"> |
1366 |
| - <row bottom="minor"> |
1367 |
| - <cell /> |
1368 |
| - <cell><m>\exists y \forall x P(x,y)</m> |
1369 |
| - </cell> |
1370 |
| - </row> |
1371 |
| - <row> |
1372 |
| - <cell><m> |
1373 |
| - \therefore</m> |
1374 |
| - </cell> |
1375 |
| - <cell><m>\forall x \exists y P(x,y)</m> |
1376 |
| - </cell> |
1377 |
| - </row> |
1378 |
| - </tabular> |
1379 |
| - |
1380 |
| - </sidebyside> |
1381 |
| - |
1382 |
| - <p> |
1383 |
| - Put yet another way, this says that the single statement <me> |
1384 |
| - \exists y \forall x P(x,y) \imp \forall x \exists y P(x,y) |
1385 |
| - </me> |
1386 |
| - is always true. This is sort of like a tautology, although we reserve that term for |
1387 |
| - necessary truths in propositional logic. A statement in predicate logic that is |
1388 |
| - necessarily true gets the more prestigious designation of a <term>law of logic</term> |
1389 |
| - <idx>law of |
1390 |
| - logic</idx> (or sometimes <term>logically valid</term>, <idx><h>logically valid</h><see>law of logic</see> |
1391 |
| - </idx> |
1392 |
| - but that is less fun). </p> |
1393 |
| - </solution> |
1394 |
| - </example> |
1395 |
| - </subsection> |
1396 | 1279 |
|
1397 | 1280 | <reading-questions xml:id="rqs-logic-prop">
|
1398 | 1281 | <exercise label="rq-logic-prop-equiv">
|
|
0 commit comments