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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.
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 ...
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 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 ...
For example, the sentence "'Snow is white' is true" becomes materially equivalent with the sentence "snow is white", i.e. 'snow is white' is true if and only if snow is white. Said again, a sentence of the form "A" is true if and only if A is true. The truth of more complex sentences is defined in terms of the components of the sentence:
A logical argument, seen as an ordered set of sentences, has a logical form that derives from the form of its constituent sentences; the logical form of an argument is sometimes called argument form. [6] Some authors only define logical form with respect to whole arguments, as the schemata or inferential structure of the argument. [7]
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.
Logic is commonly defined in terms of arguments or inferences as the study of their correctness. [59] An argument is a set of premises together with a conclusion. [60] An inference is the process of reasoning from these premises to the conclusion. [43] But these terms are often used interchangeably in logic.