Predicate Logic

Introduction to Predicate Logic

The propositional logic is not powerful enough to represent all types of assertions that are used in computer science and mathematics, or to express certain types of relationship between propositions such as equivalence.

For example, the assertion "x is greater than 1", where x is a variable, is not a proposition because you can not tell whether it is true or false unless you know the value of x. Thus the propositional logic can not deal with such sentences. However, such assertions appear quite often in mathematics and we want to do inferencing on those assertions.

Also the pattern involved in the following logical equivalences can not be captured by the propositional logic:

"Not all birds fly" is equivalent to "Some birds don't fly".
"Not all integers are even" is equivalent to "Some integers are not even".
"Not all cars are expensive" is equivalent to "Some cars are not expensive",
... .

Each of those propositions is treated independently of the others in propositional logic. For example, if P represents "Not all birds fly" and Q represents "Some integers are not even", then there is no mechanism in propositional logic to find out tha P is equivalent to Q. Hence to be used in inferencing, each of these equivalences must be listed individually rather than dealing with a general formula that covers all these equivalences collectively and instantiating it as they become necessary, if only propositional logic is used.

Thus we need more powerful logic to deal with these and other problems. The predicate logic is one of such logic and it addresses these issues among others.


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