In logic, cyclic negation is (assuming that the truth values are linearly ordered) a unary truth function that takes a truth value n and returns n-1 as value if n isn't the lowest value; otherwise it returns the highest value. For example, let (i) be the set of truth values be {0,1,2}, (ii) '~' denote negation, and (iii) p be a variable over truth values (i.e. whose range is truth values). Thus if p=0 then ~p=2; and if p=1 then ~p=0.
It was originally introduced by the logician and mathematician Emil Post.
Famous quotes containing the word negation:
“Michelangelo said to Pope Julius II, “Self negation is noble, self-culture is beneficent, self-possession is manly, but to the truly great and inspiring soul they are poor and tame compared to self-abuse.” Mr. Brown, here, in one of his latest and most graceful poems refers to it in an eloquent line which is destined to live to the end of time—”None know it but to love it, None name it but to praise.””
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)