Equality
Rashidah Kasauli & Nasser Kimbugwe
Department of Networks
Block A, Level 3,Room 301
COCIS
Rashidah Kasauli & Nasser Kimbugwe BSE 1107 1 / 13
Overview
1 Recap
2 Introduction to equality
3 Equality
4 Uniqueness and Quantity
5 Definite Description
Rashidah Kasauli & Nasser Kimbugwe BSE 1107 2 / 13
Recap
Some concepts - Satisfaction and Validity
A predicate with free variables is neither true nor false; until values
are chosen for the variables
Some predicates will become true whatever values are chosen: these
are said to be valid predicates.
Example: If n denotes a natural number, then the predicate
n≥0
is valid.: if it is true whichever value is chosen from the list 0, 1, 2, 3, ...
Rashidah Kasauli & Nasser Kimbugwe BSE 1107 3 / 13
Recap
Satisfaction and validity.....
A predicate is satisfiable if it is true for some, but not necessarily all,
choices of values.
Example: If n denotes a natural number, then the predicate
n≥5
is satisfiable.
A predicate that is false for all choices is said to be unsatisfiable.
Valid, satisfiable, and unsatisfiable predicates are the analogues of
tautologies, contingencies, and contradictions in the language of
propositions.
Rashidah Kasauli & Nasser Kimbugwe BSE 1107 4 / 13
Introduction to equality
Introduction
It allows us to assert the identity of two objects, or to distinguish
between them.
Inference rules - expressions which are equal may be substituted one
for the other, without affecting the truth of a statement.
These rules form the basis of theory of equality, and properties such
as symmetry and transitivity can be derived from them.
Equality allows to reason about quantifications using the one-point
rule.
Rashidah Kasauli & Nasser Kimbugwe BSE 1107 5 / 13
Equality
Equality
In arithmetic we learn that 1 + 1 equals 2;
In the Christian religion, the 25th of December equals Christmas Day.
Such statements indicate that the two expressions concerned have the
same value, or that they denote the same object.
In a formal description, we write e = f when e is identical to f , in
the sense that we cannot distinguish between them.
Rashidah Kasauli & Nasser Kimbugwe BSE 1107 6 / 13
Equality
Equality....
Example: In an identity parade, a witness may state that
‘The man on the right is the man who stole my idea’,
making the following identification:
The man on the right = the man who stole my idea
That is, the man on the right is identical to the man who stole the
idea.
Rashidah Kasauli & Nasser Kimbugwe BSE 1107 7 / 13
Equality
Equality...
Used to represent that two values (such as numbers) and not
predicates are identical
Law of reflection: Everything is identical to itself e.g t = t
Doesn’t hold for all logics and thus an axiom
Leibniz’s law, or the substitution of equals: if s = t , then whatever is
true of s is also true of t.
Rashidah Kasauli & Nasser Kimbugwe BSE 1107 8 / 13
Equality
Equality...
Example: If we know that Christmas Day = 25th December, and that
25th December falls on a Sunday this year then we may apply the
substitution of equals rule and conclude that Christmas Day falls on a
Sunday this year.
If two expressions e and f are not identical, then we write e ̸= f .
This is simply an abbreviation for ¬(e = f ).
Equality is symmetric: for any expressions s and t , if s = t , then
t = s.
Equality is transitive: for any expressions s, t and u, if s = t and
t = u then s = u.
Rashidah Kasauli & Nasser Kimbugwe BSE 1107 9 / 13
Uniqueness and Quantity
Uniqueness
Example: Let x loves y mean that x is in love with y , and let domain
be the set of all people. We may symbolise the proposition
‘only Romeo loves Juliet’ using a conjunction:
Loves(Romeo, Juliet) ∧ Loves(x, Juliet) → x = Romeo
That is, any person who loves Juliet must be Romeo.
This technique can be use to formalise expressions containing ‘at
most’ and ‘no more than’
Rashidah Kasauli & Nasser Kimbugwe BSE 1107 10 / 13
Definite Description
Definite description
We often use a descriptive phrase to denote an object, rather than a
name.
For example, ‘the driver of the white car’ or ‘the cat in the hat’.
In both of these examples, it is the word ‘the’ that is important
‘The’ is used to indicate existence and uniqueness.
Each of the following phrases indicates that there is a unique object
with a certain property:
The man who shot John Lennon
The woman who discovered radium
The oldest university in Uganda
A special notation for this definite description of objects: the
µ-notation. We write (µxP(x)) or (µx : a|P) to denote the unique
object x from a such that P.
Rashidah Kasauli & Nasser Kimbugwe BSE 1107 11 / 13
Definite Description
Definite description
Each of the following phrases indicates that there is a unique object
with a certain property:
The man who shot John Lennon
µx Shot(x, John) and x ∈ {People}
The man who discovered the source of the nile
µy discovered(y , SourceNile) and y ∈ {People}
The oldest university in Uganda
µm oldest(m, Uganda) and m ∈ {Universities}
So how are these statements formalised?
John Speke discovered the source of the nile.
John Speke = µy discovered(y , SourceNile)
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Definite Description
The End
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