User:JMRyan/Sandbox

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Example truth table[edit | edit source]

 
T F
F T


Example derivation[edit | edit source]

 
1.     Premise
2.     Premise
3.     Premise
4.     1 KE
5.     1 KE
6.     4 DI
7.     2, 6 CE
8.     5, 7 KI
9.     3, 8 CE


Example subderivation[edit | edit source]

 
1.     Premise
2.     Premise
 
3.       Assumption
4.       2 KE
 
5.     3-4 CI
6.     1, 5 CE

Logical form[edit | edit source]

We will not try to explain fully what logical form is. Both natural languages such as English and logical languages such as exhibit logical form. A primary purpose of a logical language is to make the logical form explicit by having it correspond directly with the grammar. In the context of , a logical form is indicated by a metalogical expression containing no sentence letters but containing metalogical variables (in our convention, Greek letters). A single formula can have several logical forms of varying degrees of explicitness or granularity. For example, the formula has the following three logical forms:

Obviously, the first of these is the most explicit or fine-grained.

We say that a formula is an instance of a logical form. For example, the formula has, among many others, the following instances.

Formal semantics[edit | edit source]

The formal semantics for a formal language such as goes in two parts.

  • Rules for specifying an interpretation. An interpretation assigns semantic values to the non-logical symbols of a formal syntax. The semantics for a formal language will specify what range of vaules can be assigned to which class of non-logical symbols. has only one class of non-logical symbols, so the rule here is particularly simple. An interpretation for a sentential language is a valuation, namely an assignment of truth values to sentence letters. In predicate logic, we will encounter interpretations that include other elements in addition to a valuation.
  • Rules for assigning semantic values to larger expressions of the language. For sentential logic, these rules assign a truth value to larger formulae based on truth values assigned to smaller formulae.For more complex syntaxes (such as for predicate logic), values are assigned in a more complex fashion.

An extended valuation assigns truth values to the molecular formulae of (or similar sentential language) based on a valuation. A valuation for sentence letters is extended by a set of rules to cover all formulae.