Logic – Using Logical Implication to Analyze Mathematics

logicpredicate-logicpropositional-calculus

I've read the answers here and here, and have the following view. Please correct me any misunderstandings.

  1. In a truth table, each row (truth value assignment) corresponds to an 'interpretation'.

  2. A compound statement is called a tautology when it is true under all interpretations.

  3. Let $P \models Q$ stand strictly for purely logical implication. We say that $P$ logically implies $Q$ when in all those interpretations/rows where $P$ is true, $Q$ is also true. For example, $(P \land Q) \models (P \lor Q).$

    Clearly, if $P \models Q,$ then $P \to Q$ is always true under all interpretations, i.e., it will be a tautology, because in every interpretation where $P$ is true, $Q$ is also true, and therefore we don't have the case of $P$ true and $Q$ false.

  4. Let $P {\implies} Q$ stand strictly for mathematical implication. When we say that $P {\implies} Q,$ we are saying that given our mathematics axioms and definitions, if $P=1,$ then $Q=1.$

    Now, $(P,Q)=(1,1)$ is just one row out of many rows in the truth table for the statement $P\to Q,$ so corresponds to one of many possible interpretations. In this one interpretation, we can say that $P \to Q$ is true, since both components are. $P {\implies} Q$ applies only to this particular interpretation/row that our mathematics system has yielded us; we have not said anything about the truth value of $P \to Q$ under any other interpretation in the truth table.

    It could be that there is some other interpretation of $P$ and $Q$ where $P \to Q$ is false, for example, if $P=1,Q=0.$ The other interpretations could evaluate $P$ and $Q$ differently than our math axioms and definitions, and assign different combination of truth values to them (by evaluating their component statements differently). Still, in mathematical implication, all that we have is just one interpretation.

    And this means that in general, $P {\implies} Q$ (mathematical implication) is not a tautology, because we have only one interpretation to talk of in mathematical implication, and to claim that $P {\implies} Q$ is a tautology is to assert that we know $P \to Q$ to be true under all interpretations, which we don't.

Best Answer

in mathematical implication, all that we have is just one interpretation.

There is actually no single ‘interpretation’ in mathematics; I will elaborate further down.

  1. When we say that $P {\implies} Q,$ we are saying that if $P=1,$ then $Q=1.$

  2. $(P,Q)=(1,1)$ is just one row out of many rows in the truth table

  3. $P {\implies} Q$ applies only to this particular interpretation/row

Sentence #2 is inaccurate: $(P,Q)=(1,1)$ generally corresponds to multiple rows of $(P{\implies}Q)$'s truth table, because $P$ and $Q$ are generally compound statements.

Moreover, $(P {\implies} Q)$ corresponds not just to $(P,Q)=(1,1),$ but also to $(P,Q)=(0,0)$ and $(0,1).$ (So, sentence #3 is wrong and contradicts sentence #1.)

Everything else that you've written in this new answer is technically correct. However, these comments from that second link are pertinent:

@medium_o The book that you are using is dealing with propositional logic (no “for each” and “there exists”), whereas mathematical reasoning is pretty much predicate logic (full of “for each” and “there exists”). For example, in mathematics, $\Big(P(x){\implies}Q(x)\Big)$ generally actually means $\forall x\Big(P(x){\implies}Q(x)\Big).$ I suggest keeping propositional logic and mathematics in separate compartments for the time being.

@medium_o "Can we have a simple example of a mathematical $P{\implies}Q$ whose truth table I could verify simply myself as not being a tautology" $\quad$ Truth tables are not really applicable when doing mathematics, for example, $\text“\sin^2 x +\cos^2 x=1\text”$ is universally true but not a tautology, as its skeletal form is just $P,$ and its truth table only has 2 rows, the 1st True while the 2nd False.

In mathematics, when we write $$|x|=3 \implies x=\pm3,\tag1$$ what we actually mean is “for each number $x,\;|x|=3 \implies x=\pm3\text”$ or, symbolically, $$\forall x\;\big(|x|=3 \implies x=\pm3\big).\tag2$$ In predicate logic, we can symbolise this sentence (i.e., proposition) as $$\forall x\;\big(A(x)\to B(x)\big).\tag3$$ Now, $A(x)$ is true if $x=3i,$ but false is $x=2.$ But since a sentence is either true or false, $A(x)$ is not a sentence. Neither is $B(x).$ Neither is $(1).$ They are called predicates (i.e., propositional functions).

However, $(2)$ is a sentence. In real analysis (interpretation #1), it is certainly true; in complex analysis (interpretation #2), it is certainly false.

If one insists on constructing truth tables (even though we have already chosen one interpretation and aren't at all investigating tautological truth), then sentence $(2)$ can be symbolised simply as $P.$ Its truth table has $2$ rows, and reveals that it is not a tautology. This is not surprising, because mathematical theorems are not self-evident truths, which is basically what tautologies are.

Propositional logic is not equipped to handle mathematics.