Introduction to the Discrete Mathematics

Course and to Propositional Logic

Sections 1.1-1.3

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Discrete Mathematics
• Discrete mathematics is a catchall term that includes several
branches of mathematics. The common thread is that these
branches of mathematics typically have no use for the taking of
limits (i.e.,the continuum mathematics of calculus, analysis,
differential equations, topology, high school algebra, and advanced
probability). The objects under study are finite or else infinite in a
fashion that does not bring them closer and closer together (i.e.,
there are always discrete steps between objects). This is not a
definition so much as a feeling, and the line between discrete and
continuum mathematics is not sharp. Customarily the term discrete
mathematics includes the following branches.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Discrete Mathematics
• Formal Logic: This includes symbolic logic,
propositional logic, and predicate logic. Such logic is the
foundation of mathematics. It provides the basis for
interpreting mathematical statements and the tool by
which one demonstrates the truth or falsehood of such
statements. More broadly it provides a powerful tool for
analyzing the validity of reasoning about truth in general.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Discrete Mathematics
• Set Theory: Informally we define a set as a collection of
objects. The resulting theory of how one can operate on
sets is known as naïve set theory. It is naïve because the
informal definition leads to subtle paradoxes. A more
careful definition of set removes these paradoxes and
leaves the conclusions of naïve set theory intact. In
practice, then, naïve set theory is what mathematicians
almost invariably use. Unexpectedly the structure of
basic set theory is parallel to that of propositional logic.
Sets are foundational mathematical objects. In some
sense practically every mathematical object (numbers,
functions, surfaces, etc.) is a set.
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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Discrete Mathematics
• Relations: In mathematics it is frequently useful to
describe or define some relationship between
mathematical objects. The most familiar relations are =,
<, and >, but many more exist. In particular functions are
a special case of relations. The language of relations and
functions has proved a powerful tool in stating
mathematical results clearly and then proving them.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Discrete Mathematics
• Proofs: Mathematics is about objective truth that is not
merely true but also provable. This is why
mathematicians do not typically debate the truth of
mathematics, why there are no competing theories in
mathematics, and why personalities play no role in
determining what is “accepted” as true. Either the result
is proved or it is not. Thus to be a mathematician is to
learn to prove. We will learn what constitutes a valid
proof and why these proofs (and not others) establish
truth. As a useful step along the way we will learn a
taxonomy (naming scheme) of proofs.
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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Discrete Mathematics
• Mathematical Induction: Theorems in discrete
mathematics often assert the truth of a particular
proposition for every positive integer. Mathematical
induction is a proof technique particularly well-suited to
establish such results. Despite its name, mathematical
induction is a deductive (rather than inductive) way of
reasoning. It mystifies most people who see it for the
first time, but it is easily mastered with experience.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Discrete Mathematics
• Number Theory: Algebra, geometry, and number theory
are the ancient branches of mathematics beyond basic
arithmetic (though some people might include music and
astronomy). Traditionally number theory concerns the
properties of the integers — e.g., being prime or
composite, congruence modulo some integer, divisibility.
Some modern applications of number theory are found in
cryptography, data validation (checksums), and
manufacturing (designing gears to mesh in ways that
avoid patterns of wear).

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Discrete Mathematics
• Graph Theory: This relatively new field of mathematics,
a branch of combinatorics, is not more than two or three
centuries old. It addresses structures consisting of
vertices (dots typically) joined by edges (lines or curves
typically). These structures naturally model many
phenomena, both natural and manmade, in creation and
so are of interest for their applicability as well as their
intrinsic properties. For instance, graphs arise naturally
in transportation problems (logistics), printed circuit
board design, tournament bracket construction, and the
construction of efficient data structures and algorithms.
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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Discrete Mathematics
• Enumeration: Another branch of combinatorics, enumeration has
been studied since the late Middle Ages or early Renaissance (I
think). Enumeration is simply a fancy word for counting. It has
always been important for the study of probability since in many
cases a probability is simply the fraction of favorable cases over
total cases. It has grown dramatically, however, with the advent of
computers. Evaluating the complexity of algorithms and the
security of password schemes depend on counting as do more
mundane tasks such as determining whether license plate schemes
and phone number schemes will produce enough possibilities to
serve the current population.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Discrete Mathematics
• As the above discussion indicates, discrete mathematics
includes both ancient and relatively modern topics. It has
gained prominence in the past few generations, perhaps
because of the increasing number of technologies that
rely on discrete (digital) phenomena rather than analog
(continuous) ones.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Discrete Mathematics
• Similarly, discrete mathematics has pushed itself ever
deeper and earlier into the school mathematics
curriculum in the past generation or two. You must
decide for yourself whether this is a good change. It
does, however, offer many new opportunities for
presenting serious mathematics to students. Unlike
calculus (and even trigonometry, analytic geometry, and
some algebra), many topics in discrete mathematics have
readily comprehensible applications and their study has
few prerequisites.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Discrete Mathematics
• One can study quite a bit of interesting number theory,
enumeration, and graph theory without knowing any
more mathematics than the arithmetic of whole numbers.
One can even find and write valid proofs with such a
background. A little algebra is helpful for studying logic,
set theory, and graph theory, but the requirements are
minimal. (For instance, when I was homeschooling my
eldest son, I took him through half a college text in
symbolic logic during ninth grade when he was also
learning Algebra I. He had great success with that
material despite his limited mathematics background.)

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• Propositional logic is the study of propositions (true or
false statements) and ways of combining them (logical
operators) to get new propositions. It is effectively an
algebra of propositions. In this algebra, the variables
stand for unknown propositions (instead of unknown real
numbers) and the operators are and, or, not, implies, and
if and only if (rather than plus, minus, negative, times,
and divided by). Just as middle/high school students
learn the notation of algebra and how to manipulate it
properly, we want to learn the notation of propositional
logic and how to manipulate it properly.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• Symbol manipulation has a bad reputation in some circles, and
rightly so when one learns it without understanding what the
symbols and manipulations mean. On the other hand, as you
know, the development of good notation is a huge part of the
history of mathematics. Good notation greatly facilitates clear
thinking, intuition, and insight. It strips away the irrelevant to help
us see true relationships that would otherwise be invisible. Good
manipulation skills allow us to proceed from one conclusion to the
next quickly, confidently, and verifiably. They save us from having
to justify routine, familiar steps every time we encounter them,
and they suggest new ways of proceeding that we might never
have discovered otherwise.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• Symbol manipulation has a bad reputation in some circles, and
rightly so when one learns it without understanding what the
symbols and manipulations mean. On the other hand, as you
know, the development of good notation is a huge part of the
history of mathematics. Good notation greatly facilitates clear
thinking, intuition, and insight. It strips away the irrelevant to help
us see true relationships that would otherwise be invisible. Good
manipulation skills allow us to proceed from one conclusion to the
next quickly, confidently, and verifiably. They save us from having
to justify routine, familiar steps every time we encounter them,
and they suggest new ways of proceeding that we might never
have discovered otherwise.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• The Two Elements of Symbolic Logic: Propositions
– A proposition is a statement with a truth value. That is, it is a
statement that is true or else a statement that is false. Here are
some examples with their truth values.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• The Two Elements of Symbolic Logic: Propositions
– Ayres Hall houses the mathematics department at the
University of Tennessee. (true)
– The main campus of the University of Kentucky is in Athens,
Ohio. (false)
– Homer was the blind poet who composed the Illiad and the
Odyssey. (The statement is certainly true or false, but we may
not know which. Tradition asserts the truth of this proposition,
but some scholars doubt its truth).
– Jesus of Nazareth was God incarnate. (Again the statement is
certainly true or false, even though many people stand on both
sides of the question.)

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• The Two Elements of Symbolic Logic: Propositions
– It will rain in Knoxville tomorrow. (We cannot know the truth
of this statement today, but it is certainly either true or false.)
– 2+2=4 (true)
– 2+2=19 (false)
– There are only finitely many prime numbers. (false)
– Every positive even integer greater than 2 can be written as the
sum of two prime numbers. (This is certainly true or false, but
no one knows which. The proposition is known as Goldbach’s
Conjecture. It holds for every integer yet tested – e.g, 4=2+2,
6=3+3, 8=3+5 – but no one has found a proof that it holds for
all even integers greater than two.)

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• The Two Elements of Symbolic Logic: Propositions
– On the other hand, here are some examples of expressions that
are not propositions.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• The Two Elements of Symbolic Logic: Propositions
– Where is Ayres Hall? (This is neither true nor false. It is a
question.)
– Find Ayres Hall! (This is neither true nor false. It is a
command.)
– Blue is the best color to paint a house. (This is a matter of
opinion, not truth. It may be your favorite color, but it is not
objective truth.)

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• The Two Elements of Symbolic Logic: Propositions
– Coffee tastes better than tea. (Again, this is a matter of taste,
not truth.)
– The integer n is even. (Since n has no value, this statement is
neither true nor false. If n is given a value, this statement
becomes a proposition. Later we will call such statements
predicates or propositional functions. They are not
propositions, but they become propositions when their
variables are assigned values.)

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• The Two Elements of Symbolic Logic: Logical Operators
– Arithmetic operators (operations) such as addition, subtraction,
multiplication, division, and negation act on numbers to give new numbers.
Logical operators such conjunction (and), disjunction (or), and negation
(not) act on propositions to give new (compound) propositions. Logical
operators should be truth functional; that is, the truth value of the compound
proposition should depend only on the truth value of the component
propositions. This makes it easy to specify the effect of a logical operator:
we simply list the truth value of the compound proposition for every
combination of truth values of the component compositions. Such a list is a
called a truth table. Note that no such definition of arithmetic operations is
possible because there are infinitely many possible values of numbers.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• The Common Logical Operators
– Conjunction (and): The conjunction of propositions p and q is
the compound proposition “p and q”. We denote it p  q . It
is true if p and q are both true and false otherwise. For instance
the compound proposition “2+2=4 and Sunday is the first day
of the week”
pq is true, but “3+3=7 and the freezing point of water
is 32 degrees” false. The truth table that defines conjunction is

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 p q pq

T T T

T F F

F T F

F F F

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• The Common Logical Operators
– Disjunction (or): In English the word or has two senses:
inclusive and exclusive. The inclusive sense means “either or
both” as in “to be admitted to the university you must have an
ACT composite score of at least 17 or a high school GPA of at
least 2.5.” The exclusive sense means “one or the other but not
both” as in “for dinner I will have a sirloin steak or the fried
shrimp platter” or “is the capital of Kentucky Louisville or
Lexington?” In mathematics and logic the word or always has
the inclusive sense; exceptions require alarm bells and warning
lights.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• The Common Logical Operators
– The disjunction of propositions p and q is the compound
proposition “p or q”. We denote it p  q . It is true if p is
true or q is true or both. For instance the compound proposition
“2+2=4 or Sunday is the first day of the week” is true, and
“3+3=7 or the freezing point of water is 32 degrees” is also
true, but “2+2=5 or UT is in Oklahoma” is false. The truth
table that defines disjunction is

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 p q pq
T T T

T F F

F T F

F F F

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• The Common Logical Operators
– Negation (not): The negation of a proposition p is “not p”. We
denote it . It is true if p false and vice versa. This differs from
the previous operators in that it is a unary operator, acting on a
single proposition rather than a pair (the others are binary
operators). Sometimes there are several ways of expressing a
negation in English, and you should be careful to choose a
clear one. For instance if p is the proposition “2<5”, then
reasonable statements of ~p are “it is not the case that 2<5” and
“2 is not less than 5” and “”. The truth table that defines
negation is

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 p ~p

T F

F T

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 Propositional Logic
• The Common Logical Operators: Conditional (implies,
if-then)
– An implication is a compound proposition of the form “if p
then q” or “p implies q”. In English this phrase carries many
meanings. Sometimes it means that p causes q as in “if you eat
too much you will get fat.” Sometimes it means that p
guarantees q and vice versa as in “if you write a book report, I
will give you five points extra credit” (tacitly assuring you that
if you do not write it, I certainly will not give you extra credit).
Sometimes it takes a very weak sense, simply asserting that the
truth of p guarantees the truth of q as in “if you resign the chess
game, you will lose” (but of course if you play on in a bad
position, you will probably lose anyway — continued play
does not guarantee winning).

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• The Common Logical Operators: Conditional (implies,
if-then)
– Mathematics and logic always use implication in this weakest
sense. Why? Because this is the very least that implication
means in English. It makes our claims as conservative as
possible. If we take “if-then” in this very weak sense, then we
will never assume the phrase means more than it should. We
denote the compound proposition “p implies q” by p  q .
From our discussion above the truth table for implies is

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 p q pq
T T T

T F F

F T T

F F T

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 Propositional Logic
• The Common Logical Operators: Conditional (implies,
if-then)
– Thus an implication is true unless its antecedent p is true and
its consequent q is false. For instance, suppose I say “if I win
the lottery, I will give each of you $5.00.” Obviously if I win
the lottery and give you $5.00, I have kept my word. Similarly
if I do not win and I do not give you $5.00, I have kept my
word. What if I do not win but I still give you $5.00 (here p is
false and q is true)? In our technical use of implies, p  qstill
I have
kept my word; my promise is still kept. The point is that I made
a promise only about what I would do if I did win the lottery. If
I did not win the lottery, I am free to do as I will. The only way
I can break my word is to win the lottery but not give you
$5.00.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• The Common Logical Operators: Conditional (implies,
if-then)
– Similarly conditionals like “if 2+2=5, then all prime numbers
are even” are true, even if their usefulness is not immediately
apparent.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• The Common Logical Operators: Conditional (implies,
if-then)
– The implication has many phrasings in English. It is helpful to
be well acquainted with the possibilities as some of them are
counterintuitive. Here are a few.
• if p then q
• p implies q
• p is sufficient for q
• q is necessary for p
• q, if p
• p only if q (unexpected but correct)

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• The Common Logical Operators: Biconditional (if and
only if):
– The biconditional of propositions p and q is the compound
proposition “p if and only if q” or “p is necessary and sufficient
for q”. We denote it . It is true if p and q have the same truth
value (both true or both false). It is, in fact, one of the stronger
senses of the phrase “if…then…” in everyday English as
mentioned above. The biconditional “2+2=4 if and only if
Sunday is the first day of the week” is true, and “3+3=7 or the
freezing point of water is 32 degrees” is false, but “2+2=5 or
UT is in Oklahoma” is true. The truth table that defines the
biconditional is

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 p q pq
T T T

T F F

F T F

F F T

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• The Common Logical Operators:
– Exclusive or (xor, p or q but not both): It is possible to define a
logical operator for exclusive or. The book discusses the idea
briefly on page four, but the concept will not interest us much
in this course.

encounter & for and, | for or,

the conditional.

– Other notations are common for logical operators. You may
for not, and  for

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• In a more extensive treatment of logic we would define
careful rules about order of logical operation, just as we
teach students in pre-algebra about arithmetic/algebraic
order of operation. For our course, however, we will
introduce just two simple rules: First evaluate
parentheses from the inside out. Second, subject to the
first rule evaluate negation before other operators. These
two rules require us to indicate the order of all binary
operations explicitly using parentheses. For instance
p.  q  r is ambiguous, possibly meaning ( p  q)  r
or p  ( q  r ) .

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• Truth Tables: A truth table lists the truth values of a
compound proposition for every combination of truth
values of its component simple propositions. Truth tables
are a basic tool of propositional logic. Below I present a
simple way of constructing truth tables. The book also
shows a more efficient way that you may prefer.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• Truth Tables: First note that if a compound proposition
involves n simple propositions, then its truth table must
have 2 n lines (since there are two choice for the truth
value of each of n propositions). It is tedious to construct
truth tables for compound propositions involving more
than three simple propositions. It is also important to
have a simple pattern for listing all possible
combinations of the truth values of those simple
propositions.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• For example, suppose we want the truth table for
p  ( q  ( p  r ))
Here is the truth table we get, building up one operator at
a time

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 p q r ~q
pr q  ( p  r) p  ( q  ( p  r ))
T T T F T T T
T T F F F F F
T F T T T T T
T F F T F T T
F T T F F F T
F T F F F F T
F F T T F T T
F F F T F T T

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• Why are truth tables important?
– A truth table gives us complete information about the role that
the form of a compound proposition plays in determining the
truth of the compound proposition. Form is the key word. An
expression like p  ( q  ( p  r )) is only a form
until actual propositions replace the variables p, q, and r. (just
as in arithmetic/algebra an expression like x 2  y 2 is
only a form until actual numbers replace the variables x and y).

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• Why are truth tables important?
– Mathematics often studies form rather than content. For
instance we know that the numbers that make the form x  y
2 2

equal some fixed positive constant take the shape of a

hyperbola. An algebraic expression like x 2  y 2
represents an infinite collection of numbers generated by a
common arithmetic form. Simplistically speaking, we often
characterize such forms by the shapes of graphs (line, parabola,
ellipse, etc.); shapes are helpful in describing infinite
collections of points. Tables, on the other hand, are seldom
useful since a table of values for x 2  y 2 has infinitely
many lines, one for each possible value of x and y.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• Why are truth tables important?
– Logical variables (p, q, r, etc.) stand for infinitely many
propositions, but these propositions can take on only two truth
values. Thus there are only finitely many ways to assign truth
values to a logical expression like

p  ( q  ( p  r ))
The truth table lists the possible assignments together with the
resulting truth value of the expression. This describes the form
perfectly and completely, giving us far more information about
the logical expression than the graph does for an algebraic
expression. A truth table is the natural way to try to answer
every question about a logical expression.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• Logical Equivalence
– Two expressions are logically equivalent if they have the same
truth table. In other words, their component simple
propositions take on the same truth values, then the expressions
take on the same truth values.
– For example, the expressions p  q and pq
are logically equivalent as the following truth tables show.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 p q pq pq
T T T T

T F F F

F T T T

F F T T

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• Logical Equivalence
– We use the symbol  to indicate logical equivalence (the
symbol  is probably more common, but it is also more
confusing). In the above case we write
( p  q)  ( p  q)
Note  is not a logical operator. Rather it indicates a kind of
equality. The statement ( p  q)  ( p  q) is an
actual, concrete proposition (a true one), not a formal
expression with a truth table.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• Logical Equivalence
– The notion of logical equivalence is similar to that of algebraic identity. For
instance, when we write the identity

( x  y)  x  2 xy  y
2 2 2

we are saying that once the values of x and y are fixed the two expressions
evaluate to the same number (i.e., identical inputs always produce identical
outputs). This is useful because it means we can freely substitute one
expression for the other. Similarly we may freely replace a compound
proposition by another one that is logically equivalent. One can, thus,
discover and prove new logical equivalences by taking a compound
proposition and successively replacing parts of it by logically equivalent
expressions. The book gives an example of this process in the second
paragraph on page 16, justifying each step with one of the “famous
equivalences” below.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• Logical Equivalence: Famous Equivalences
– Just as we use certain algebraic identities again and again, there
are logical equivalences that prove useful frequently. For
instance, associated to a conditional p  q are three other
conditionals: the converse q p , the inverse p  q
and the contrapositive q  p . It turns out that the
contrapositive is logically equivalent to the original conditional
and the converse is logically equivalent to the inverse. That is
( p  q)  ( q  p)
and
(q  p)  ( p  q)
These terms are worth memorizing

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• Logical Equivalence: Famous Equivalences
– This is intuitively clear. For instance to say “if n is odd, then so
is its square” is clearly equivalent to saying “if the square of n
is not odd, then neither is n itself.”
– Theorem 1.4 on pp. 14–15 lists other common logical
equivalences. These are not worth memorizing, but you should
read them over a time or two to become acquainted with them.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• Tautologies and Contradictions
– Some compound propositions have a truth value of true
regardless of the truth values of their component propositions.
That is, their truth tables show them being true on every line.
Such propositions are called tautologies (the book also uses the
somewhat confusing term logically true — a better term would
be formally true). A simple example is p  p whose
truth table appears below.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 p ~p p p

T F T

F T T

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• Tautologies and Contradictions
– This tautology guarantees the truth of statements like

2  2  4 or 2  2  4
and “UT is in Knoxville or UT is not in Knoxville.” The form
guarantees the truth of the statement regardless of its content.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• Tautologies and Contradictions
– In studying propositional logic we sometimes encounter a need
for a tautology, any tautology. Instead of inserting one
haphazardly we simply use the boldface letter T to stand for
such a tautology.
– Similarly an expression has a truth value of false regardless of
the truth values of its component propositions is called a
contradiction (or logically false). We denote contradictions by
F. An example is p  p , covering such propositions as
“UT is in Knoxville and UT is not in Knoxville.” Its truth table
is

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 p ~p p p

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 Propositional Logic
• Tautologies and Contradictions
– Continuing the analogy between logical and algebraic
expressions, we recognize tautologies and contradictions as the
“constant functions” of propositional logic; a contradiction is
false by form regardless of its content just as x-x=0 regardless
of the value of x.
– The book shows several more logical equivalences involving
tautologies and contradictions at the top of page 16.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 The Importance of Form
• The validity of deductive argument (proof) depends
solely on the form of the argument. This seemingly
astonishing statement is intuitively clear upon
examination of an example or two.
• For instance consider the argument “All men are mortal.
Socrates is a man. Therefore Socrates is mortal.” This
argument is obviously valid and will remain so if mortal
is replaced by asleep, men is replaced by dogs, and
Socrates is replaced by fido. Indeed all arguments of this
form are valid (what is the form? “All a are b. X is an a.
Therefore X is a b.”)

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01
 The Importance of Form
• Thus if we wish to argue validly we must learn which
forms constitute valid arguments and which do not.
• For this reason the book contains many exercises asking
you to take a concrete compound proposition in English
and convert it into symbols (showing its form) or to
substitute concrete propositions into a logical expression
(form) to get a clear English sentence. The book gives a
number of examples of such translations. I will not
belabor that process in my lecture notes since it is
usually straightforward in reasonably simple cases such
as appear in the book.

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UT Math 504, Lecture 01