Tautology (rule of inference)

In propositional logic, tautology is one of two commonly used rules of replacement.^[1]^[2]^[3] The rules are used to eliminate redundancy in disjunctions and conjunctions when they occur in logical proofs. They are:

The principle of idempotency of disjunction:

P\lor P\Leftrightarrow P

and the principle of idempotency of conjunction:

P\land P\Leftrightarrow P

Where " $\Leftrightarrow$ " is a metalogical symbol representing "can be replaced in a logical proof with."

Formal notation

Theorems are those logical formulas $\phi$ where $\vdash \phi$ is the conclusion of a valid proof,^[4] while the equivalent semantic consequence $\models \phi$ indicates a tautology.

The tautology rule may be expressed as a sequent:

P\lor P\vdash P

and

P\land P\vdash P

where $\vdash$ is a metalogical symbol meaning that $P$ is a syntactic consequence of $P\lor P$ , in the one case, $P\land P$ in the other, in some logical system;

or as a rule of inference:

{\frac {P\lor P}{\therefore P}}

and

{\frac {P\land P}{\therefore P}}

where the rule is that wherever an instance of " $P\lor P$ " or " $P\land P$ " appears on a line of a proof, it can be replaced with " $P$ ";

or as the statement of a truth-functional tautology or theorem of propositional logic. The principle was stated as a theorem of propositional logic by Russell and Whitehead in Principia Mathematica as:

(P\lor P)\to P

and

(P\land P)\to P

where $P$ is a proposition expressed in some formal system.

References

↑ Hurley, Patrick (1991). A Concise Introduction to Logic 4th edition. Wadsworth Publishing. pp. 364–5.
↑ Copi and Cohen
↑ Moore and Parker
↑ Logic in Computer Science, p. 13

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[1] Hurley, Patrick (1991). A Concise Introduction to Logic 4th edition. Wadsworth Publishing. pp. 364–5.

[2] Copi and Cohen

[3] Moore and Parker

[4] Logic in Computer Science, p. 13