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The simplest type of formula in logic, consisting of a single predicate applied to a sequence of terms without any logical connectives. atomic sentence A sentence that contains no logical connectives or quantifiers, expressing a basic statement about objects. autological A term that describes itself. For example, the word "short" is autological ...
Sentences are then built up out of atomic sentences by applying connectives and quantifiers. A set of sentences is called a theory; thus, individual sentences may be called theorems. To properly evaluate the truth (or falsehood) of a sentence, one must make reference to an interpretation of the theory.
The foundation of logical grammar was laid out by the Greek philosophers. According to Plato, the task of the sentence is to make a statement about the subject by means of predication. In the Sophist, he uses the example of "Theaetetus is sitting" to illustrate the idea of predication. This statement involves the subject "Theaetetus" and the ...
For example, if the formula () stands for the sentence "Socrates is a banker" then the formula articulates the sentence "It is possible that Socrates is a banker". [127] To include these symbols in the logical formalism, modal logic introduces new rules of inference that govern what role they play in inferences.
Logical reasoning happens by inferring a conclusion from a set of premises. [3] Premises and conclusions are normally seen as propositions. A proposition is a statement that makes a claim about what is the case. In this regard, propositions act as truth-bearers: they are either true or false. [18] [19] [3] For example, the sentence "The water ...
In this way all logical connectives can be expressed in terms of preserving logical truth. The logical form of a sentence is determined by its semantic or syntactic structure and by the placement of logical constants. Logical constants determine whether a statement is a logical truth when they are combined with a language that limits its meaning.
In the latter case, a (declarative) sentence is just one way of expressing an underlying statement. A statement is what a sentence means, it is the notion or idea that a sentence expresses, i.e., what it represents. For example, it could be said that "2 + 2 = 4" and "two plus two equals four" are two different sentences expressing the same ...
The modern view is more complex, since a single judgement of Aristotle's system involves two or more logical connectives. For example, the sentence "All men are mortal" involves, in term logic, two non-logical terms "is a man" (here M) and "is mortal" (here D): the sentence is given by the judgement A(M,D).