Logic
While the material conditional operator used in logic (i.e.) is sometimes read aloud in the form of a conditional sentence (i.e. "if p, then q"), the intuitive interpretation of conditional statements in natural language does not always correspond to the definition of this mathematical relation. Modelling the meaning of real conditional statements requires the definition of an indicative conditional, and contrary-to-fact statements require a counterfactual conditional operator, formalized in modal logic.
Read more about this topic: Protasis (linguistics)
Famous quotes containing the word logic:
“The logic of the world is prior to all truth and falsehood.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)
“seizing the swift logic of a woman,
Curse God and die.”
—Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935)
“We want in every man a long logic; we cannot pardon the absence of it, but it must not be spoken. Logic is the procession or proportionate unfolding of the intuition; but its virtue is as silent method; the moment it would appear as propositions and have a separate value, it is worthless.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)