Philosophy 103: Introduction to Logic

The Language of Symbolic Logic

Abstract: Conventions for translating ordinary language statements into
symbolic notation are outlined.
I.

We are going to set up an artificial "language" to avoid the difficulties

of vagueness, equivocation, amphiboly, and confusion from emotive
significance.

A. The first thing we are going to do is to learn the elements of this "new
language."
B. The second is to learn to translate ordinary language grammar into
symbolic notation.
C. The third thing is to consider arguments in this "new language."
II.

Symbolic logic is by far the simplest kind of logicit is a great

time-saver in argumentation. Additionally, it helps prevent logical
confusion when dealing with complex arguments..

A. The modern development of symbolic logic begin withGeorge Boole in

the 19th century.
B. Symbolic logic can be thought of as a simple and flexible
shorthand:
1.

Consider the symbols:

[(p

2.

q) (q

r)]

(p

r).

This rule was well known to the Stoics, but they expressed
it this way:
"If, if the first then the second and if the second then the third,
then, if the first then the third."

3.

We will find that all of the essential manipulations in

symbolic logic are about as complex and working with numbers
made up on ones and zeros.

II.

We begin with the simplest part of propositional logic:

combining simple propositions into compound propositions and
determining the truth value of the resulting compounds.

A. Propositions can be thought of as the "atoms" of propositional logic.

1.

Simple propositions are statements which cannot be

broken down without a loss in meaning.

1.

E.g., "John and Charles are brothers" cannot be

broken down without a change in the meaning of the
statement. Note the change in meaning from "John and Charles
are brothers" to the mistranslation "John is a
brother" and "Charles is a brother."
2.

On the other hand, "John and Charles work diligently"

can be broken down without a change in meaning:
"John works diligently." "Charles works diligently." (It is
assumed contextually that the meaning of the original
statement is not that John and Charles work diligently
together.)

b. Conventionally, capital letters (usually towards the beginning

of the alphabet) may be used as abbreviations for
propositions.
E.g., "John and Charles are brothers" can be symbolized as B.
and "John and Charles work diligently" can be symbolized as
the two statements: J and C.
The logical operator "and," as we will see, will be symbolized in
these notes as " " although other symbols are often used
elsewhere.
B. In addition to propositions, propositional logic usesoperators on
propositions.
a. Propositions can be thought of like the sticks of a tinker-toy set.
b. Operators are like the connecting blocks. Typical operators
include "and," "or," and "implies."
c. By adding more and more operators, we get more complex
structures.

C. For evaluation of statements, there is only one condition to be

learned:
"In order to know the truth value of the proposition which
results from applying an operator to propositions, all that need
be known is the definition of the operator and the truth value
of the propositions used."
Logical Symbols
Although traditional categorical logic can be used to represent and
assess many of our most common patterns of reasoning, modern
logicians have developed much more comprehensive and powerful
systems for expressing rational thought. These newer logical
languages are often called "symbolic logic," since they employ special
symbols to represent clearly even highly complex logical relationships.
We'll begin our study of symbolic logic with the propositional calculus,
a formal system that effectively captures the ways in which individual
statements can be combined with each other in interesting ways. The
first step, of course, is to define precisely all of the special, new
symbols we will use.
Compound Statements
The propositional calculus is not concerned with any features within a simple
proposition. Its most basic units are whole propositions or statements, each
of which is either true or false (though, of course, we don't always know
which). In ordinary language, we convey statements by complete declarative
sentences, such as "Alan bears an uncanny resemblance to Jonathan," "Betty
enjoys watching John cook," or "Chris and Lloyd are an unbeatable team."
But when we're thinking about the logical relationships that hold among two
or three or more such statements, it would be awfully clumsy to write out the
entire sentence at every occurrence of each of them. Instead, we represent
specific individual statements by using capital letters of the alphabet as
statement constants. Thus, for example, we could use A , B , and C to
represent the statements mentioned aboveletting A stand for "Alan bears
an uncanny resemblance to Jonathan," B stand for "Betty enjoys watching
John cook," and C stand for "Chris and Lloyd are an unbeatable team."
Within the context of this discussion, each statement constant designates
one and only one statement.
When we want to deal with statements more generally, we will use
lower-case letters of the alphabet (beginning with "p") as statement
variables. Thus, for example, we might say, "Consider any statement,
p , . . ." or "Suppose that some pair of statements, p and q , are both
true . . . ." Statement variables can stand for any statements

whatsoever, but within the scope of a specific context, each statement

variable always designates the same statement. Once we've begun
substituting A for p , we must do so consistently; that is, every
occurrence of p must be taken to refer to A . But if another variable,
q , occurs in t
Negation
p ~p
T F
F T
The " ~ " signifies logical negation; it simply reverses the truth value of any
statement (simple or compound) in front of which it appears: if the original is
true, the ~ statement is false, and if the original is false, the ~ statement is
true. Thus, its meaning can be represented by the truth-table at right.
The English expression "It is not the case that . . ." serves the same function,
though of course we have many other methods of negating an assertion in
ordinary languagesometimes the single word "not" embedded in a
sentence is enough to do the job.
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A. Logical Operators and Translations
There are two types of statement: simple and compound. Asimple statement is one that does not
contain another statement as a component. Another way to describe a simple statement is to say that
it contains a subject and a verb. It can also contain dependent clauses, but the basic idea is that the
smallest grammatical unit has a truth value. In the notation of symbolic logic, these statements are
represented by capital letters AZ.
A compound statement contains at least one simple statement as a component, along with
a connective. There are five connectives: negation, conjunction, disjunction, conditional, and
biconditional. In the notation of symbolic logic, these connectives are represented by operators: