Alternative titles: mathematical logic; symbolic logic

Formal logic, the abstract study of propositions, statements, or assertively used sentences and of deductive arguments. The discipline abstracts from the content of these elements the structures or logical forms that they embody. The logician customarily uses a symbolic notation to express such structures clearly and unambiguously and to enable manipulations and tests of validity to be more easily applied. Although the following discussion freely employs the technical notation of modern symbolic logic, its symbols are introduced gradually and with accompanying explanations so that the serious and attentive general reader should be able to follow the development of ideas.

Formal logic is an a priori, and not an empirical, study. In this respect it contrasts with the natural sciences and with all other disciplines that depend on observation for their data. Its nearest analogy is to pure mathematics; indeed, many logicians and pure mathematicians would regard their respective subjects as indistinguishable, or as merely two stages of the same unified discipline. Formal logic, therefore, is not to be confused with the empirical study of the processes of reasoning, which belongs to psychology. It must also be distinguished from the art of correct reasoning, which is the practical skill of applying logical principles to particular cases; and, even more sharply, it must be distinguished from the art of persuasion, in which invalid arguments are sometimes more effective than valid ones.

General observations

Probably the most natural approach to formal logic is through the idea of the validity of an argument of the kind known as deductive. A deductive argument can be roughly characterized as one in which the claim is made that some proposition (the conclusion) follows with strict necessity from some other proposition or propositions (the premises)—i.e., that it would be inconsistent or self-contradictory to assert the premises but deny the conclusion.

If a deductive argument is to succeed in establishing the truth of its conclusion, two quite distinct conditions must be met: first, the conclusion must really follow from the premises—i.e., the deduction of the conclusion from the premises must be logically correct—and, second, the premises themselves must be true. An argument meeting both these conditions is called sound. Of these two conditions, the logician as such is concerned only with the first; the second, the determination of the truth or falsity of the premises, is the task of some special discipline or of common observation appropriate to the subject matter of the argument. When the conclusion of an argument is correctly deducible from its premises, the inference from the premises to the conclusion is said to be (deductively) valid, irrespective of whether the premises are true or false. Other ways of expressing the fact that an inference is deductively valid are to say that the truth of the premises gives (or would give) an absolute guarantee of the truth of the conclusion or that it would involve a logical inconsistency (as distinct from a mere mistake of fact) to suppose that the premises were true but the conclusion false.

The deductive inferences with which formal logic is concerned are, as the name suggests, those for which validity depends not on any features of their subject matter but on their form or structure. Thus, the two inferences (1) Every dog is a mammal. Some quadrupeds are dogs. ∴ Some quadrupeds are mammals. and(2) Every anarchist is a believer in free love. Some members of the government party are anarchists. ∴ Some members of the government party are believers in free love. differ in subject matter and hence require different procedures to check the truth or falsity of their premises. But their validity is ensured by what they have in common—namely, that the argument in each is of the form(3) Every X is a Y. Some Z’s are X’s. ∴ Some Z’s are Y’s.

Line (3) above may be called an inference form, and (1) and (2) are then instances of that inference form. The letters—X, Y, and Z—in (3) mark the places into which expressions of a certain type may be inserted. Symbols used for this purpose are known as variables; their use is analogous to that of the x in algebra, which marks the place into which a numeral can be inserted. An instance of an inference form is produced by replacing all the variables in it by appropriate expressions (i.e., ones that make sense in the context) and by doing so uniformly (i.e., by substituting the same expression wherever the same variable recurs). The feature of (3) that guarantees that every instance of it will be valid is its construction in such a manner that every uniform way of replacing its variables to make the premises true automatically makes the conclusion true also, or, in other words, that no instance of it can have true premises but a false conclusion. In virtue of this feature, the form (3) is termed a valid inference form. In contrast,(4) Every X is a Y. Some Z’s are Y’s. ∴ Some Z’s are X’s. is not a valid inference form, for, although instances of it can be produced in which premises and conclusion are all true, instances of it can also be produced in which the premises are true but the conclusion is false—e.g.,(5) Every dog is a mammal. Some winged creatures are mammals. ∴ Some winged creatures are dogs.

Formal logic as a study is concerned with inference forms rather than with particular instances of them. One of its tasks is to discriminate between valid and invalid inference forms and to explore and systematize the relations that hold among valid ones.

Closely related to the idea of a valid inference form is that of a valid proposition form. A proposition form is an expression of which the instances (produced as before by appropriate and uniform replacements for variables) are not inferences from several propositions to a conclusion but rather propositions taken individually, and a valid proposition form is one for which all of the instances are true propositions. A simple example is(6) Nothing is both an X and a non-X. Formal logic is concerned with proposition forms as well as with inference forms. The study of proposition forms can, in fact, be made to include that of inference forms in the following way: let the premises of any given inference form (taken together) be abbreviated by alpha (α) and its conclusion by beta (β). Then the condition stated above for the validity of the inference form “α, therefore β” amounts to saying that no instance of the proposition form “α and not-β” is true—i.e., that every instance of the proposition form(7) Not both: α and not-β is true—or that line (7), fully spelled out, of course, is a valid proposition form. The study of proposition forms, however, cannot be similarly accommodated under the study of inference forms, and so for reasons of comprehensiveness it is usual to regard formal logic as the study of proposition forms. Because a logician’s handling of proposition forms is in many ways analogous to a mathematician’s handling of numerical formulas, the systems he constructs are often called calculi.

Much of the work of a logician proceeds at a more abstract level than that of the foregoing discussion. Even a formula such as (3) above, though not referring to any specific subject matter, contains expressions like “every” and “is a,” which are thought of as having a definite meaning, and the variables are intended to mark the places for expressions of one particular kind (roughly, common nouns or class names). It is possible, however—and for some purposes it is essential—to study formulas without attaching even this degree of meaningfulness to them. The construction of a system of logic, in fact, involves two distinguishable processes: one consists in setting up a symbolic apparatus—a set of symbols, rules for stringing these together into formulas, and rules for manipulating these formulas; the second consists in attaching certain meanings to these symbols and formulas. If only the former is done, the system is said to be uninterpreted, or purely formal; if the latter is done as well, the system is said to be interpreted. This distinction is important, because systems of logic turn out to have certain properties quite independently of any interpretations that may be placed upon them. An axiomatic system of logic can be taken as an example—i.e., a system in which certain unproved formulas, known as axioms, are taken as starting points, and further formulas (theorems) are proved on the strength of these. As will appear later (see below Axiomatization of PC), the question whether a sequence of formulas in an axiomatic system is a proof or not depends solely on which formulas are taken as axioms and on what the rules are for deriving theorems from axioms, and not at all on what the theorems or axioms mean. Moreover, a given uninterpreted system is in general capable of being interpreted equally well in a number of different ways; hence, in studying an uninterpreted system, one is studying the structure that is common to a variety of interpreted systems. Normally a logician who constructs a purely formal system does have a particular interpretation in mind, and his motive for constructing it is the belief that when this interpretation is given to it, the formulas of the system will be able to express true principles in some field of thought; but, for the above reasons among others, he will usually take care to describe the formulas and state the rules of the system without reference to interpretation and to indicate as a separate matter the interpretation that he has in mind.

Many of the ideas used in the exposition of formal logic, including some that are mentioned above, raise problems that belong to philosophy rather than to logic itself. Examples are: What is the correct analysis of the notion of truth? What is a proposition, and how is it related to the sentence by which it is expressed? Are there some kinds of sound reasoning that are neither deductive nor inductive? Fortunately, it is possible to learn to do formal logic without having satisfactory answers to such questions, just as it is possible to do mathematics without answering questions belonging to the philosophy of mathematics such as: Are numbers real objects or mental constructs?

The propositional calculus

Basic features of PC

The simplest and most basic branch of logic is the propositional calculus, hereafter called PC, so named because it deals only with complete, unanalyzed propositions and certain combinations into which they enter. Various notations for PC are used in the literature. In that used here the symbols employed in PC first comprise variables (for which the letters p, q, r, … are used, with or without numerical subscripts); second, operators (for which the symbols ∼, ·, ∨, ⊃, and ≡ are employed); and third, brackets or parentheses. The rules for constructing formulas are discussed below (see below Formation rules for PC), but the intended interpretations of these symbols—i.e., the meanings to be given to them—are indicated here immediately: the variables are to be viewed as representing unspecified propositions or as marking the places in formulas into which sentences, and only sentences, may be inserted. (This is sometimes expressed by saying that variables range over propositions, or that they take propositions as their values.) Hence they are often called propositional variables. It is assumed that every proposition is either true or false and that no proposition is both true and false. Truth and falsity are said to be the truth values of propositions. The function of an operator is to form a new proposition from one or more given propositions, called the arguments of the operator. The operators ∼, · , ∨, ⊃, and ≡ correspond respectively to the English expressions “not,” “and,” “or,” “if … , then” (or “implies”), and “is equivalent to,” when these are used in the following senses:

  1. Given a proposition p, then ∼p (“not p”) is to count as false when p is true and true when p is false; “∼” (when thus interpreted) is known as the negation sign, and ∼p as the negation of p.
  2. Given any two propositions p and q, then p · q (“p and q”) is to count as true when p and q are both true and as false in all other cases (namely, when p is true and q false, when p is false and q true, and when p and q are both false); p · q is said to be the conjunction of p and q; “ · ” is known as the conjunction sign, and its arguments (p, q) as conjuncts.
  3. Given any two propositions p and q, then pq (“p or q”) is to count as false when p and q are both false and true in all other cases; thus it represents the assertion that at least one of p and q is true. Pq is known as the disjunction of p and q; “∨” is the disjunction sign, and its arguments (p, q) are known as disjuncts.
  4. Given any two propositions p and q, then pq (“if p [then] q” or “p [materially] implies q”) is to count as false when p is true and q is false and as true in all other cases; hence it has the same meaning as “either not-p or q” or as “not both p and not-q.” The symbol “⊃” is known as the (material) implication sign, the first argument as the antecedent, and the second as the consequent; qp is known as the converse of pq.
  5. Finally, pq (“p is [materially] equivalent to q” or “p if and only if q”) is to count as true when p and q have the same truth value (i.e., either when both are true or when both are false), and false when they have different truth values; the arguments of “≡” (the [material] equivalence sign) are called equivalents.

Brackets are used to indicate grouping; they make it possible to distinguish, for example, between p · (qr) (“both p and either-q-or-r”) and (p · q) ∨ r (“either both-p-and-q or r”). Precise rules for bracketing are given below.

All PC operators take propositions as their arguments, and the result of applying them is also in each case a proposition. For this reason they are sometimes called proposition-forming operators on propositions or, more briefly, propositional connectives. An operator that, like ∼, requires only a single argument is known as a monadic operator; operators that, like all the others listed, require two arguments are known as dyadic.

All PC operators also have the following important characteristic: given the truth values of the arguments, the truth value of the proposition formed by them and the operator is determined in every case. An operator that has this characteristic is known as a truth-functional operator, and a proposition formed by such an operator is called a truth function of the operator’s argument(s). The truth functionality of the PC operators is clearly brought out by summarizing the above account of them in Table 1. In it, “true” is abbreviated by “1” and “false” by “0,” and to the left of the vertical line are tabulated all possible combinations of truth values of the operators’ arguments. The columns of 1s and 0s under the various truth functions indicate their truth values for each of the cases; these columns are known as the truth tables of the relevant operators. It should be noted that any column of four 1s or 0s or both will specify a dyadic truth-functional operator. Because there are precisely 24 (i.e., 16) ways of forming a string of four symbols each of which is to be either 1 or 0 (1111, 1110, 1101, … , 0000), there are 16 such operators in all; the four that are listed here are only the four most generally useful ones.

Formation rules for PC


  • FR1.A variable standing alone is a wff.




Validity in PC

Given the standard interpretation, a wff of PC becomes a sentence, true or false, when all its variables are replaced by actual sentences. Such a wff is therefore a proposition form in the sense explained above and hence is valid if and only if all its instances express true propositions. A wff of which all instances are false is said to be unsatisfiable, and one with some true and some false instances is said to be contingent.

An important problem for any logical system is the decision problem for the class of valid wffs of that system (sometimes simply called the decision problem for the system). This is the problem of finding an effective procedure, in the sense explained in the preceding section, for testing the validity of any wff of the system. Such a procedure is called a decision procedure. For some systems a decision procedure can be found; the decision problem for a system of this sort is then said to be solvable, and the system is said to be a decidable one. For other systems it can be proved that no decision procedure is possible; the decision problem for such a system is then said to be unsolvable, and the system is said to be an undecidable one.

PC is a decidable system. In fact, several decision procedures for it are known. Of these the simplest and most important theoretically (though not always the easiest to apply in practice) is the method of truth tables, which will now be explained briefly. Since all the operators in a wff of PC are truth-functional, in order to discover the truth value of any instance of such a wff, it is unnecessary to consider anything but the truth values of the sentences replacing the variables. In other words, the assignment of a truth value to each of the variables in a wff uniquely determines a truth value for the whole wff. Since there are only two truth values and each wff contains only a finite number of variables, there are only a finite number of truth-value assignments to the variables to be considered (if there are n distinct variables in the wff, there are 2n such assignments); these can easily be systematically tabulated. For each of these assignments the truth tables for the operators then enable one to calculate the resulting truth value of the whole wff; the wff is valid if and only if this truth value is truth in each case. As an example, [(pq) · r] ⊃ [(∼rp) ⊃ q] may be tested for validity. This formula states that “if one proposition implies a second one, and a certain third proposition is true, then if either that third proposition is false or the first is true, the second is true.”

The calculation is shown in Table 2. As before, 1 represents truth and 0 falsity. Since the wff contains three variables, there are 23 (i.e., 8) different assignments to the variables to be considered, which therefore generate the eight lines of the table. These assignments are tabulated to the left of the vertical line. The numbers in parentheses at the foot indicate the order in which the steps (from 1 through 6) are to be taken in determining the truth values (1 or 0) to be entered in the table. Thus column 1, falling under the symbol ⊃, sets down the values of pq for each assignment, obtained from the columns under p and q by the truth table for ⊃; column 2, for (pq) · r, is then obtained by employing the values in column 1 together with those in the column under r by use of the truth table for ·; … until finally column 6, which gives the values for the whole wff, is obtained from columns 2 and 5. This column is called the truth table of the whole wff. Since it consists entirely of 1s, it shows that the wff is true for every assignment given to the variables and is therefore valid. A wff for which the truth table consists entirely of 0s is never satisfied, and a wff for which the truth table contains at least one 1 and at least one 0 is contingent. It follows from the formation rules and from the fact that an initial truth table has been specified for each operator that a truth table can be constructed for any given wff of PC.

Among the more important valid wffs of PC are those of Table 3, all of which can be shown to be valid by a mechanical application of the truth-table method. They can also be seen to express intuitively sound general principles about propositions. For instance, because “not (… or …)” can be rephrased as “neither … nor …,” the first De Morgan law can be read as “both p and q if and only if neither not-p nor not-q”; thus it expresses the principle that two propositions are jointly true if and only if neither of them is false. Whenever, as is the case in most of the examples given, a wff of the form α ≡ β is valid, the corresponding wffs α ⊃ β and β ⊃ α are also valid. For instance, because (p · q) ≡ ∼(∼p ∨ ∼q) is valid, so are (p · q) ⊃ ∼(∼p ∨ ∼q) and ∼(∼p ∨ ∼q) ⊃ (p · q).

Moreover, although pq does not mean that q can be deduced from p, yet whenever a wff of the form α ⊃ β is valid, the inference form “α, therefore β” is likewise valid. This fact is easily seen from the fact that α ⊃ β means the same as “not both: α and not-β”; for, as was noted above, whenever the latter is a valid proposition form, “α, therefore β” is a valid inference form.

Let α be any wff. If any variable in it is now uniformly replaced by some wff, the resulting wff is called a substitution-instance of α. Thus [p ⊃ (q ∨ ∼r)] ≡ [∼(q ∨ ∼r) ⊃ ∼p] is a substitution-instance of (pq) ≡ (∼q ⊃ ∼p), obtained from it by replacing q uniformly by (q ∨ ∼r). It is an important principle that, whenever a wff is valid, so is every substitution-instance of it (the rule of [uniform] substitution).

A further important principle is the rule of substitution of equivalents. Two wffs, α and β, are said to be equivalents when α ≡ β is valid. (The wffs α and β are equivalents if and only if they have identical truth tables.) The rule states that, if any part of a wff is replaced by an equivalent of that part, the resulting wff and the original are also equivalents. Such replacements need not be uniform. The application of this rule is said to make an equivalence transformation.

Interdefinability of operators

The rules that have just been stated would enable the first De Morgan law listed in Table 3 to transform any wff containing any number of occurrences of · into an equivalent wff in which · does not appear at all, but in place of it certain complexes of ∼ and ∨ are used. Similarly, since ∼pq has the same truth table as pq, (pq) ≡ (∼pq) is valid, and any wff containing ⊃ can therefore be transformed into an equivalent wff containing ∼ and ∨ but not ⊃. And, since (pq) ≡ [(pq) · (qp)] is valid, any wff containing ≡ can be transformed into an equivalent containing ⊃ and · but not ≡, and thus in turn by the previous steps it can be further transformed into one containing ∼ and ∨ but neither ≡ nor ⊃ nor · . Thus, for every wff of PC there is an equivalent wff, expressing precisely the same truth function, in which the only operators are ∼ and ∨, though the meaning of this wff will usually be much less clear than that of the original.

An alternative way of presenting PC, therefore, is to begin with the operators ∼ and ∨ only and to define the others in terms of these. The operators ∼ and ∨ are then said to be primitive. If “=Df” is used to mean “is defined as,” then the relevant definitions can be set down as follows:(α · β) = Df ∼(∼α ∨ ∼β)(α ⊃ β) = Df (∼α ∨ β)(α ≡ β) = Df [(α ⊃ β) · (β ⊃ α)] in which α and β are any wffs of PC. These definitions are not themselves wffs of PC, nor is =Df a symbol of PC; they are metalogical statements about PC, used to introduce the new symbols · , ⊃, and ≡ into the system. If PC is regarded as a purely uninterpreted system, the expression on the left in a definition is simply a convenient abbreviation of the expression on the right. If, however, PC is thought of as having its standard interpretation, the meanings of ∼ and ∨ will first of all have been stipulated by truth tables, and then the definitions will lay it down that the expression on the left is to be understood as having the same meaning (i.e., the same truth table) as the expression on the right. It is easy to check that the truth tables obtained in this way for · , ⊃, and ≡ are precisely the ones that were originally stipulated for them.

An alternative to taking ∼ and ∨ as primitive is to take ∼ and · as primitive and to define (α ∨ β) as ∼(∼α · ∼β), to define (α ⊃ β) as ∼(α · ∼β), and to define (α ≡ β) as before. Yet another possibility is to take ∼ and ⊃ as primitive and to define (α ∨ β) as (∼α ⊃ β), (α · β) as ∼(α ⊃ ∼β), and (α ≡ β) as before. In each case, precisely the same wffs that were valid in the original presentation of the system are still valid.

Axiomatization of PC

The basic idea of constructing an axiomatic system is that of choosing certain wffs (known as axioms) as starting points and giving rules for deriving further wffs (known as theorems) from them. Such rules are called transformation rules. Sometimes the word “theorem” is used to cover axioms as well as theorems; the word “thesis” is also used for this purpose.

An axiomatic basis consists of

  • 1.A list of primitive symbols, together with any definitions that may be thought convenient,
  • 2.A set of formation rules, specifying which sequences of symbols are to count as wffs,
  • 3.A list of wffs selected as axioms, and
  • 4.A set of (one or more) transformation rules, which enable new wffs (theorems) to be obtained by performing certain specified operations on axioms or previously obtained theorems.

Definitions, where they occur, can function as additional transformation rules, to the effect that, if in any theorem any expression of the form occurring on one side of a definition is replaced by the corresponding expression of the form occurring on the other side, the result is also to count as a theorem. A proof or derivation of a wff α in an axiomatic system S is a sequence of wffs of which the last is α itself and each wff in the sequence is either an axiom of S or is derived from some axiom(s) or some already-derived theorem(s) or both by one of the transformation rules of S. A wff is a theorem of S if and only if there is a proof of it in S.

Care is usually taken, in setting out an axiomatic basis, to avoid all reference to interpretation. It must be possible to tell purely from the construction of a wff whether it is an axiom or not. Moreover, the transformation rules must be so formulated that there is an effective way of telling whether any purported application of them is a correct application or not, and hence whether a purported proof of a theorem really is a proof or not. An axiomatic system will then be a purely formal structure, on which any one of a number of interpretations, or none at all, may be imposed without affecting the question of which wffs are theorems. Normally, however, an axiomatic system is constructed with a certain interpretation in mind; the transformation rules are so formulated that under that interpretation they are validity preserving (i.e., the results of applying them to valid wffs are always themselves valid wffs); and the chosen axioms either are valid wffs or are expressions of principles of which it is desired to explore the consequences.

Whitehead, Alfred North [Credit: ]Whitehead, Alfred NorthProbably the best-known axiomatic system for PC is the following one, which, since it is derived from Principia Mathematica (1910–13) by Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell, is often called PM:

  • Definitions of · , ⊃, ≡ (see above Interdefinability of operators).
  • Formation rules (see above Formation rules for PC), except that formation rule 3 can be abbreviated to “If α and β are wffs, (α ∨ β) is a wff,” since · , ⊃, and ≡ are not primitive.
  • Axioms:
    1. (pp) ⊃ p
    2. q ⊃ (pq)
    3. (pq) ⊃ (qp)
    4. (qr) ⊃ [(pq) ⊃ (pr)]

      Axiom 4 can be read, “If q implies r, then, if either p or q, either p or r.”

  • Transformation rules:
    1. The result of uniformly replacing any variable in a theorem by any wff is a theorem (rule of substitution).


An axiomatic system is consistent if, whenever a wff α is a theorem, ∼α is not a theorem. (In terms of the standard interpretation, this means that no pair of theorems can ever be derived one of which is the negation of the other.) It is strongly complete if the addition to it (as an extra axiom) of any wff whatever that is not already a theorem would make the system inconsistent. Finally, an axiom or transformation rule is independent (in a given axiomatic system) if it cannot be derived from the remainder of the axiomatic basis (or—which comes to the same thing—if its omission from the basis would make the derivation of certain theorems impossible). It can, moreover, be shown that PM is consistent and strongly complete and that each of its axioms and transformation rules is independent.

A considerable number of other axiomatic bases for PC, each having all the above properties, are known. The task of proving that they have these properties belongs to metalogic.

In some standard expositions of formal logic, the place of axioms is taken by axiom schemata, which, instead of presenting some particular wff as an axiom, lay it down that any wff of a certain form is an axiom. For example, in place of axiom 1 in PM, one might have the axiom schema “Every wff of the form (α ∨ α) ⊃ α is an axiom”; analogous schemata can be substituted for the other axioms. The number of axioms would then become infinite, but, on the other hand, the rule of substitution would no longer be needed, and modus ponens could be the only transformation rule. This method makes no difference to the theorems that can be derived, but, in some branches of logic (though not in PC), it is simpler to work with axiom schemata rather than with particular axioms and substitution rules. Having an infinite number of axioms causes no trouble provided that there is an effective way of telling whether a wff is an axiom or not.

Special systems of PC

Partial systems of PC

Various propositional calculi have been devised to express a narrower range of truth functions than those of PC as expounded above. Of these, the one that has been most fully studied is the pure implicational calculus (PIC), in which the only operator is ⊃, and the wffs are precisely those wffs of PC that can be built up from variables, ⊃, and brackets alone. Formation rules 2 and 3 (see above Formation rules for PC) are therefore replaced by the rule that if α and β are wffs, (α ⊃ β) is a wff. As in ordinary PC, pq is interpreted as “p materially implies q”—i.e., as true except when p is true but q false. The truth-table test of validity can then be straightforwardly applied to wffs of PIC.

The task of axiomatizing PIC is that of finding a set of valid wffs, preferably few in number and relatively simple in structure, from which all other valid wffs of the system can be derived by straightforward transformation rules. The best-known basis, which was formulated in 1930, has the transformation rules of substitution and modus ponens (as in PM) and the following axioms:

  1. p ⊃ (qp)
  2. [(pq) ⊃ p] ⊃ p
  3. (pq) ⊃ [(qr) ⊃ (pr)]

Axioms 1 and 3 are closely related to axioms 2 and 4 of PM respectively (see above Axiomatization of PC). It can be shown that the basis is complete and that each axiom is independent.

Under the standard interpretation, the above axioms can be thought of as expressing the following principles: (1) “If a proposition p is true, then if some arbitrary proposition q is true, p is (still) true.” (2) “If the fact that a certain proposition p implies some arbitrary proposition q implies that p itself is true, then p is (indeed) true.” (3) “If one proposition (p) implies a second (q), then if that second proposition implies a third (r), the first implies the third.” The completeness of the basis is, however, a formal matter, not dependent on these or any other readings of the formulas.

An even more economical complete basis for PIC contains the same transformation rules but the sole axiom[(pq) ⊃ r] ⊃ [(rp) ⊃ (sp)]. It has been proved that this is the shortest possible single axiom that will give a complete basis for PIC with these transformation rules.

Since PIC contains no negation sign, the previous account of consistency is not significantly applicable to it. Alternative accounts of consistency have, however, been proposed, according to which a system is consistent (1) if no wff consisting of a single variable is a theorem or (2) if not every wff is a theorem. The bases stated are consistent in these senses.

Nonstandard versions of PC

Qualms have sometimes been expressed about the intuitive soundness of some formulas that are valid in “orthodox” PC, and these qualms have led some logicians to construct a number of propositional calculi that deviate in various ways from PC as expounded above.

Underlying ordinary PC is the intuitive idea that every proposition is either true or false, an idea that finds its formal expression in the stipulation that variables shall have two possible values only—namely, 1 and 0. (For this reason the system is often called the two-valued propositional calculus.) This idea has been challenged on various grounds. Following a suggestion made by Aristotle, some logicians have maintained that propositions about those events in the future that may or may not come to pass are neither true nor false but “neuter” in truth value. Aristotle’s example, which has received much discussion, is “There will be a sea battle tomorrow.” It has also been maintained, by the English philosopher Sir Peter Strawson and others, that, for propositions with subjects that do not have anything actual corresponding to them—such as “The present king of France is wise” (assuming that France has no king) or “All John’s children are asleep” (assuming that John has no children)—the question of truth or falsity “does not arise.” Another view is that a third truth value (say, “half-truth”) ought to be recognized as existing between truth and falsity; thus, it has been advanced that certain familiar states of the weather make the proposition “It is raining” neither definitely true nor definitely false but something in between the two.

The issues raised by the above examples no doubt differ significantly, but they all suggest a threefold rather than a twofold division of propositions and hence the possibility of a logic in which the variables may take any of three values (say 1, 1/2, and 0), with a consequent revision of the standard PC account of validity. Several such three-valued logics have been constructed and investigated; a brief account will be given here of one of them, in which the most natural interpretation of the additional value (1/2) is as “half-true,” with 1 and 0 representing truth and falsity as before. The formation rules are as they were for orthodox PC, but the meaning of the operators is extended to cover cases in which at least one argument has the value 1/2 by the five entries in Table 4. (Adopting one of the three values of the first argument, p, given in the leftmost column [1, 1/2, or 0] and, for the dyadic operators, one of the three values of the second, q, in the top row—above the line—one then finds the value of the whole formula by reading across for p and down for q.) It will be seen that these tables, owing to the Polish logician Jan Łukasiewicz, are the same as the ordinary two-valued ones when the arguments have the values 1 and 0. The other values are intended to be intuitively plausible extensions of the principles underlying the two-valued calculus to cover the cases involving half-true arguments. Clearly, these tables enable a person to calculate a determinate value (1, 1/2, or 0) for any wff, given the values assigned to the variables in it; a wff is valid in this calculus if it has the value 1 for every assignment to its variables. Since the values of formulas when the variables are assigned only the values 1 and 0 are the same as in ordinary PC, every wff that is valid in the present calculus is also valid in PC. Some wffs that are valid in PC are, however, now no longer valid. An example is (p ∨ ∼p), which, when p has the value 1/2, also has the value 1/2. This reflects the idea that if one admits the possibility of a proposition’s being half-true, one can no longer hold of every proposition without restriction that either it or its negation is true.

Given the truth tables for the operators in Table 4, it is possible to take ∼ and ⊃ as primitive and to define (α ∨ β) as [(α ⊃ β) ⊃ β]—though not as (∼α ⊃ β), as in ordinary PC; (α · β) as ∼(∼α ∨ ∼β); and (α ≡ β) as [(α ⊃ β) · (β ⊃ α)]. With these definitions as given, all valid wffs constructed from variables and ∼, · , ∨, ⊃, and ≡ can be derived by substitution and modus ponens from the following four axioms:

  1. p ⊃ (qp)
  2. (pq) ⊃ [(qr) ⊃ (pr)]
  3. [(p ⊃ ∼p) ⊃ p] ⊃ p
  4. (∼p ⊃ ∼q) ⊃ (qp)

Other three-valued logics can easily be constructed. For example, the above tables might be modified so that ∼1/2, 1/2 ⊃ 0, 1/2 ≡ 0, and 0 ≡ 1/2 all have the value 0 instead of 1/2, as before, leaving everything else unchanged. The same definitions are then still possible, but the list of valid formulas is different; e.g., ∼∼pp, which was previously valid, now has the value 1/2 when p has the value 1/2. This system can also be successfully axiomatized. Other calculi with more than three values can also be constructed along analogous lines.

Other nonstandard calculi have been constructed by beginning with an axiomatization instead of a definition of validity. Of these, the best-known is the intuitionistic calculus, devised by Arend Heyting, one of the chief representatives of the intuitionist school of mathematicians, a group of theorists who deny the validity of certain types of proof used in classical mathematics (see mathematics, foundations of: Intuitionistic logic). At least in certain contexts, members of this school regard the demonstration of the falsity of the negation of a proposition (a proof by reductio ad absurdum) as insufficient to establish the truth of the proposition in question. Thus they regard ∼∼p as an inadequate premise from which to deduce p and hence do not accept the validity of the law of double negation in the form ∼∼pp. They do, however, regard a demonstration that p is true as showing that the negation of p is false and hence accept p ⊃ ∼∼p as valid. For somewhat similar reasons, these mathematicians also refuse to accept the validity of arguments based on the law of excluded middle (p ∨ ∼p). The intuitionistic calculus aims at presenting in axiomatic form those and only those principles of propositional logic that are accepted as sound in intuitionist mathematics. In this calculus, ∼, · , ∨, and ⊃ are all primitive; the transformation rules, as before, are substitution and modus ponens; and the axioms are the following:

  1. p ⊃ (p · p)
  2. (p · q) ⊃ (q · p)
  3. (pq) ⊃ [(p · r) ⊃ (q· r)]
  4. [(pq) · (qr)] ⊃ (pr)
  5. p ⊃ (qp)
  6. [p · (pq)] ⊃ q
  7. p ⊃ (pq)
  8. (pq) ⊃ (qp)
  9. [(pr) · (qr)] ⊃ [(pq) ⊃ r]
  10. p ⊃ (pq)
  11. [(pq) · (p ⊃ ∼q)] ⊃ ∼p

From this basis neither p ∨ ∼p nor ∼∼pp can be derived, though p ⊃ ∼∼p can. In this respect this calculus resembles the second of the three-valued logics described above. It is, however, not possible to give a truth-table account of validity—no matter how many values are used—that will bring out as valid precisely those wffs that are theorems of the intuitionistic calculus and no others.

Natural deduction method in PC

PC is often presented by what is known as the method of natural deduction. Essentially this consists of a set of rules for drawing conclusions from hypotheses (assumptions, premises) represented by wffs of PC and thus for constructing valid inference forms. It also provides a method of deriving from these inference forms valid proposition forms, and in this way it is analogous to the derivation of theorems in an axiomatic system. One such set of rules is presented in Table 5 (and there are various other sets that yield the same results).

A natural deduction proof is a sequence of wffs beginning with one or more wffs as hypotheses; fresh hypotheses may also be added at any point in the course of a proof. The rules may be applied to any wff or group of wffs, as appropriate, that have already occurred in the sequence. In the case of rules 1–7, the conclusion is said to depend on all of those hypotheses that have been used in the series of applications of the rules that have led to this conclusion; i.e., it is claimed simply that the conclusion follows from these hypotheses, not that it holds in its own right. An application of rule 8 or rule 9, however, reduces by one the number of hypotheses on which the conclusion depends; and a hypothesis so eliminated is said to be a discharged hypothesis. In this way a wff may be reached that depends on no hypotheses at all. Such a wff is a theorem of logic. It can be shown that those theorems derivable by the rules stated above—together with the definition of α ≡ β as (α ⊃ β) · (β ⊃ α)—are precisely the valid wffs of PC. A set of natural deduction rules yielding as theorems all the valid wffs of a system is complete (with respect to that system) in a sense obviously analogous to that in which an axiomatic basis was said above to be complete (see Axiomatization of PC.

As an illustration, the formula [(pq) · (pr)] ⊃ [p ⊃ (q · r)] will be derived as a theorem of logic by the natural deduction method. (The sense of this formula is that, if a proposition [p] implies each of two other propositions [q, r], then it implies their conjunction.) Explanatory comments follow the proof.

The figures in parentheses immediately preceding the wffs are simply for reference. To the right is indicated either that the wff is a hypothesis or that it is derived from the wffs indicated by the rules stated. On the left are noted the hypotheses on which the wff in question depends (either the first or the second line of the derivation, or both). Note that since 8 is derived by conditional proof from hypothesis 2 and from 7, which is itself derived from hypotheses 1 and 2, 8 depends only on hypothesis 1, and hypothesis 2 is discharged. Similarly, 9 depends on no hypotheses and is therefore a theorem.

By varying the above rules it is possible to obtain natural deduction systems corresponding to other versions of PC. For example, if the second part of the double-negation rule is omitted and the rule is added that, given α · ∼α, one may then conclude β, it can be shown that the theorems then derivable are precisely the theorems of the intuitionistic calculus.

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