COSC 50 LEARNING MODULES

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DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER STUDIES

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

COSC 50: DISCREET STRUCTURES 1

First Semester, AY 2022 – 2023

Prepared by: MIRISA S. MUNDO

EMMANUEL ORAPA
ANLISSA S. TORRES
AIDA M. PENSON
INSTRUCTORS

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 Module 2

Lesson 1 Propositions

A proposition is a sentence in which the subject and predicate are combined in order to state something
as true or false. A proposition therefore either affirms or denies.
The valid propositional sentence excludes the exclamatory, interrogative, and the imperative.
Propositions are the material of our reasoning. A proposition links nouns, pronouns, and phrase to other
words in a sentence. The word or phrase that the proposition introduces is called the object of the
proposition. A proposition is a judgment expressed in a language and a judgment is a mental act in which
two or more than two ideas are combined together.
Judgments have two types:
1. Affirmative
2. 2. Negative
A proposition usually indicates the temporal, spatial, or logical relationship of its object to the rest of the
sentence as in the following examples:

The book is on the table.

The book is beneath the table.
The book is leaning against the table.

The book is beside the table.

She held the book over the
table.
She read the book during class.

Difference of propositions with sentences:

1. Proposition are different from sentences. Sentences have many kinds like questions,
exclamations, etc. But none of these can be asserted and denied. Truth and falsity apply
always to proposition, but not apply to questions or commands or exclamations.
2. Propositions must be differentiated from sentences by means of what they are asserted.
Two different sentences consisting the same proposition.
3. Sentences are parts of some language, but propositions are not tied to any given language
i.e. “It is raining”, “Barsat ho rahi hai”, both consist the same content.
4. A sentence called as proposition when it’s both term (subject and predicate) are nouns i.e.
Ram is a man. “Flower is beautiful” is not a proposition because its predicate is adjective.
5. Proposition is always in present tense. But sentences are expressed in all tenses.
6. Proposition explains quantity and quality but sentence does not explain it.
7. All propositions are sentences but not all sentences are propositions.
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Kinds of Propositions
1. Categorical or attributed – is proposition that asserts or denies that all or some of the
members of one category (the subject term) are included in another (the predicate term)
2. Hypothetical – is a compound proposition which contains a proposed or tentative
explanation
a. Conditional proposition
b. Disjunctive proposition
c. Conjunctive proposition
3. Existential – a statement is one affirming the existence of some thing or kind of things –
for instance, ‘The yeti exists’ or ‘Unicorns exist’
4. Non-existential – the negation of an existential statement
5. Simple – atomic proposition or primitive (prime) proposition
6. Compound – combination of simple propositions using connectives

Elements of Propositions
Every proposition has matter and form.

The subject and predicate are called the matter –the thought-content of the proposition –because
they are the material out of which the proposition is made.

The copula or bonding verb “is” is called the form –the structure of a proposition –because it is
the unifying principle that maintains the structure of the proposition and imparts to its materials
the nature of a proposition.
Hence a valid proposition is one which is true in its matter and correct in its form.

Three Basic Elements of a proposition:

1. Subject (S) - about whom something asserts or denies
2. Predicate (P) - what is asserted or denied of the subject
3. Copula (C) - conjunct both subject and predicate terms. Copula will be negative or
affirmative. (linking verbs is, am, are) In the negative proposition, the
negative copula (is not, am not, are not) separates or divides the predicate
from the subject.
- A proposition that expresses an affirmation and uses an affirmative
copula is called an affirmative proposition, and one that expresses
negation or denial and uses a negative copula is a negative proposition.

Example:
Politicians are liars. (affirmative)
S C P

Politicians are not liars. (negative)

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 S C P

Categorical Proposition:
A categorical proposition is simply a statement about the relationship between categories. It
states whether one category or categorical term is fully contained with another, is partially
contained within another or is completely separate.

Propositions may have quality: either affirmative or negative.

They may also have quantity: such as ‘a’, ‘some’, ‘most’ or ‘all’. The ‘all’ quantity is also
described as being universal and other quantities particular.

Quality of the Proposition

It is the quality of the copula, and the copula alone, that determines the quality of the proposition
(affirmative or negative).

Since the subject and the predicate have no bearing on the quality of the proposition,
propositions of the structures “A is non-B” and “Non-A is non-B” are, thus affirmative
propositions.

Examples:
None of the students will go. (affirmative)
No cat has nine tails. (affirmative)

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Angels are non-material beings. (affirmative)
That today is not Sunday is true. (affirmative)

Quantity of the Proposition

1. Singular –subject term is standing for one definitely designated portion of its absolute
extension. Uses words like this, that, etc.
2. Particular Proposition –a proposition that uses particular subject term (eg.Some, several,
few, etc.)
- subject term is standing for an indeterminately designated portion of its
absolute extension
3. Universal Propositon–a proposition that uses singular, indefinite, collective, and universal
terms which focuses on the subject (eg.all, every each, any, group, etc.

- Singular propositions are also considered universal.

- If the subject term is indeterminate – that is if it is not modified by any sign of
singularity, particularity, or universality, then the proposition is indeterminate.
- By its sense, the quantity of the proposition can be determined. In case of doubt, assume
that it is “particular” and thus avoid attempting to draw more out of the premises that
may actually be in them.

Exercise: Classify the following as singular, particular, or universal.

1. Manila is a populous city.
2. That man is sick.
3. Some student is shouting at the top of his voice.
4. All men are mortal.
5. A dog is barking outside my window.
6. Fido is barking outside my window.
7. Our neighbor’s dog is barking outside my window.
8. A dog is an animal.
9. Dogs are not cats.
10. Pigeons are eating up the newly planted seed.
11. Pigeons are not mammals.
12. Many men are suffering from arthritis.
13. Some Filipinos are communists.
14. Whatever is lighter than water floats on water.
15. All students in this room weigh over 2 tons.
16. No student in this room weighs over 200 pounds.
17. Woman is fickle.
18. Romeo is a romantic character.
19. Men are selfish creatures.

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 20. The Republic of the Philippines is a great nation.

Aristotelian Four-fold Classification of Categorical Propositions.

Aristotle classified categorical propositions in four based on Quality and Quantity distribution.
Category Symbol Proposition Form
Universal A All S is P. All + Subject + Copula + Predicate
Affirmative
Universal E No S is P. No + Subject + Copula + Predicate
Negative
Particular
I Some S is P. Some + Subject + Copula + Predicate
Affirmative
Particular Some + Subject + Copula + Not +
O Some S is not P.
Negative Predicate

A and I are taken from the two vowels of AffIrmo.

E and O from the two vowels of nEgO.

Universal Affirmative proposition (A) - A proposition having a universal quantifier and an

affirmative copula
Examples:
All idiots are slow learners.
Every judgment is an act of the mind.

Also, indefinite affirmative and singular affirmative and singular affirmative propositions are
considered universal affirmative.
Examples:
Man is fallible.
The insect is poisonous.

Universal Negative proposition (E)- A proposition having a universal quantifier and a negative
copula.

Examples:
No transparencies are plastic.

Also, indefinite negative and singular negative propositions are considered universal negative.

Examples:

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 Beauty is not sensible.
This snake is not venomous.

Particular Affirmative proposition (I) - A proposition having a particular quantifier and an

affirmative copula.

Examples:
Few students are in the dean’s list.
Some policemen are rich.
Certain men are geniuses.

Also, indefinite affirmative propositions.

Examples:
Men are selfish. (Most?)
Women are fickle. (Some? A large minority? Most?)

Particular Negative proposition (O) - A proposition having a particular quantifier and a negative
copula.

Examples:
Some honest people are not married.
Majority of the soldiers are not brave.

Also, indefinite negative propositions.

Examples:
Politicians are not corrupt. (A few?)
Priests are not celibate. (Many?)

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Exercise: Classify the following propositions as A, E, I, or O.
1. All cats are animals.
2. No man is immortal by nature.
3. Some roses are red.
4. Gloria is the president of the Philippines.
5. Some roses are not red.
6. This man is not a sailor.
7. No zebras are native to the Philippines.
8. Camels are not native to the Philippines.
9. Not all basketball players are good students.
10. All basketball players are not good students.
11. No one who does no work will get any pay.
12. All the members of that class are architecture majors.
13. Lindberg was not the first to fly across the Atlantic.
14. Whatever is lighter than water floats on water.
15. All students in this room weigh over 2 tons.
16. No student in this room weighs over 200 pounds.
17. Woman is fickle.
18. Men are selfish creatures.
19. Romeo is a romantic character.
20. The Republic of the Philippines is a great nation.

Lesson 2 Atomic and Compound Sentences

Atomic Sentence – a type of declarative sentence which is either true or false (may also be
referred to as a proposition, statement or truthbearer) and which cannot be broken down into
other simpler sentences. Used in logic, atomic sentences are the building blocks for more
complex statements, called molecular sentences. In logical proofs, atomic sentences are assigned
letters in order to easily calculate the truth or falsity of a more complex statement.

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 In symbolic logic, atomic sentences are assigned letters, often starting with P and then
continuing alphabetically. But any letter may be used.
Example:
Let D be the proposition “Dogs are mammals.”
Let R be the proposition “Ray Bans are expensive.”
Let K be the proposition “Kato is a beautiful dog.”

When two or more atomic sentences are strung together with the use of words such as “and”,
“if”, “but” and “not”, they form a more complex sentence called compound sentence. The words
that join together atomic sentences are called connectives or operators and they are given
symbols to represent their function.
Compound sentences express logical relationships between the simpler sentences of which they
are composed. There are five types of compound sentences: negations, conjunctions,
disjunctions, implications, and biconditionals.
Five types of Compound Sentences
1. A negation is a sentence which is modified by the word “not”. The negation symbol is
the tilde (¬).
Proposition Symbol Negation Symbol
2 is a prime. P 2 is not a prime ¬P
The sun is shining. S The sun is not shining. ¬S

2. A conjunction is a compound sentence formed by joining two sentences with the use of
the word “and”. The symbol for conjunction is the 𝖠 operator and enclosed in
parentheses, as shown below. The constituent sentences are called conjuncts.

Propositions Symbols Conjunction Symbol

The sun is shining. S The sun is shining, and it is S𝖠C
It is cold outside. C cold outside.
The car is blue. B The car is blue and it is B𝖠N
The car is new. N new.

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 3. A disjunction is a sentence formed by connecting two sentences with the word “or”. The
disjunction uses the ∨ operator. The constituent sentences are called disjuncts.

Propositions Symbols Conjunction Symbol

The sun is shining. S The sun is shining, or it is S∨ C
It is cold outside. C cold outside.
The car is blue. B The car is blue, or the car B∨N
The car is new. N is new.

4. An implication or conditional sentence is constructed from two sentences using “if…,

then…” and the operator used is the →. The sentence to the left of the operator is called
the antecedent, and the sentence to the right is called the consequent.

Propositions Symbols Conjunction Symbol

The sky is dark. D The sun is shining, or it is S→C
It will rain tomorrow. R cold outside.
The car is blue. B The car is blue, or the car B →N
The car is new. N is new.

5. A biconditional is a sentence formed from two sentences using “if and only if”. It is a
combination of an implication and a reverse implication. It is uses the operator ↔.

Propositions Symbols Conjunction Symbol

Angles have the same
Angles have the same measure. M
measure if and only if the M↔C
Angles are congruent. C
angles are congruent.
An angle is a right angle
An angle is a right angle. R
if and only if it measures R ↔M
An angle measures 90° M
90°

To summarize, the compound sentences and their symbols are as follows:

Compound Sentence Connective Symbol/Operator

Negation not ¬
Conjunction and 𝖠
Disjunction or ∨
Implication/Conditional implies / if…, then… →
Biconditional if and only if / is equivalent to ↔

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Parenthesization

Note that the constituent sentences within any compound sentence can be either simple sentences
or compound sentences or a mixture of the two. For example, the following is a legal compound
sentence.

((P ∨ Q) → R)

One disadvantage of our notation, as written, is that the parentheses tend to build up and need to
be matched correctly. It would be nice if we could dispense with parentheses, e.g. simplifying
the preceding sentence to the one shown below.

P∨Q→R

Unfortunately, we cannot do without parentheses entirely, since then we would be unable to

render certain sentences unambiguously. For example, the sentence shown above could have
resulted from dropping parentheses from either of the following sentences.

((P ∨ Q) → R)

(P ∨ (Q → R))

The solution to this problem is the use of operator precedence. The following table gives a
hierarchy of precedences for our operators. The ¬ operator has higher precedence than 𝖠; 𝖠 has
higher precedence than ∨; ∨ has higher precedence than →; and → has higher precedence than
↔.

¬
𝖠
∨
→
↔

In sentences without parentheses, it is often the case that an expression is flanked by operators,
one on either side. In interpreting such sentences, the question is whether the expression
associates with the operator on its left or the one on its right. We can use precedence to make this
determination. In particular, we agree that an operand in such a situation always associates with
the operator of higher precedence. The following examples show how these rules work in
various cases. The expressions on the right are the fully parenthesized versions of the
expressions on the left.

¬P𝖠Q ((¬ P) 𝖠 Q)
P𝖠¬Q (P 𝖠 (¬ Q))
P𝖠Q∨R ((P 𝖠 Q) ∨ R)

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 P∨Q𝖠R (P ∨ (Q 𝖠 R))
P→Q↔R ((P → Q) ↔ R))
P↔Q→R (P ↔ (Q → R))

When an operand is surrounded by two 𝖠 operators or by two ∨ operators, the operand associates
to the left. When an operand is surrounded by two ⇒ operators or by two ⇔ operators, the
operand associates to the right.

P𝖠Q𝖠R ((P 𝖠 Q) 𝖠 R))

P∨Q∨R ((P ∨ Q) ∨ R))
P→Q→R (P → (Q → R))
P↔Q↔R (P ↔ (Q ↔ R))

Note that just because precedence allows us to delete parentheses in some cases does not mean
that we can dispense with parentheses entirely. Consider the example shown earlier. Precedence
eliminates the ambiguity by dictating that the sentence without parentheses is an implication with
a disjunction as antecedent. However, this makes for a problem for those cases when we want to
express a disjunction with an implication as a disjunct. In such cases, we must retain at least one
pair of parentheses.

We end the section with two simple definitions that are useful in discussing Propositional Logic.
A propositional vocabulary is a set of proposition constants. A propositional language is the set
of all propositional sentences that can be formed from a propositional vocabulary.

Lesson 3 Truth tables

Negation (¬) − The negation of a proposition P (written as ¬P) is false when P is true and is true
when P is false.
The truth table is as follows −
P ¬P
True False
False True

AND (𝖠) − The AND operation of two propositions P and Q (written as P𝖠Q) is true if both the
propositional variable P and Q is true.
The truth table is as follows −
P Q P𝖠Q
True True True
True False False

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 False True False
False False False

OR (∨) − The OR operation of two propositions P and Q (written as P∨Q) is true if at least any
of the propositional variable P or Q is true.
The truth table is as follows −
P Q P∨Q
True True True
True False True
False True True
False False False

Implication / if-then (→) − An implication P→Q is the proposition “if P, then Q”. It is false if
P is true and Q is false. The rest cases are true.
The truth table is as follows −
P Q P→Q
True True True
True False False
False True True
False False True

If and only if (↔) − P↔Q is bi-conditional logical connective which is true when P and Q are
same, i.e. both are false or both are true.
The truth table is as follows −
P Q P↔Q
True True True
True False False
False True False
False False True

Tautologies
A Tautology is a formula which is always true for every value of its propositional variables.
Example − Prove [(P→Q)𝖠P]→Q is a tautology

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The truth table is as follows –

P Q P→Q (P → Q) 𝖠 P [( P → Q ) 𝖠 P] → Q
T T T T T
T F F F T
F T T F T
F F T F T

As we can see every value of [(P→Q)𝖠P]→Q is "True", it is a tautology.

Contradictions
A Contradiction is a formula which is always false for every value of its propositional variables.
Example − Prove (P∨Q)𝖠[(¬P)𝖠(¬Q)] is a contradiction
The truth table is as follows –

P Q P∨Q ¬P ¬Q (¬ P) 𝖠 ( ¬ Q) (P ∨ Q) 𝖠 [( ¬ P) 𝖠 (¬ Q)]
T T T F F F F
T F T F T F F
F T T T F F F
F F F T T T F

As we can see every value of (P∨Q)𝖠[(¬P)𝖠(¬Q)] is “False”, it is a contradiction.

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Contingency
A Contingency is a formula which has both some true and some false values for every value of
its propositional variables.
Example − Prove (P∨Q)𝖠(¬P) a contingency
The truth table is as follows –

P Q P∨Q ¬P (P ∨ Q) 𝖠 (¬ P)
T T T F F
T F T F F
F T T T T
F F F T F

As we can see every value of (P∨Q)∧(¬P)has both “True” and “False”, it is a contingency.

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