lower predicate calculus
TITLE: formal logic: Validity in LPC
SECTION: Validity in LPC
...of PC validity in terms of truth tables, an effective decision procedure. It can, indeed, be shown that no generally applicable decision procedure for LPC is possible—i.e., that LPC is not a decidable system. This does not mean that it is never possible to prove that a given wff of LPC is valid—the validity of an unlimited number of such wffs can in fact be demonstrated—but...
TITLE: formal logic: Axiomatization of LPC
SECTION: Axiomatization of LPC
Rules of uniform substitution for predicate calculi, though formulable, are mostly very complicated, and, to avoid the necessity for these rules, axioms for these systems are therefore usually given by axiom schemata in the sense explained earlier. Given the formation rules and definitions stated in the introductory paragraph of the...
TITLE: formal logic: Special systems of LPC
SECTION: Special systems of LPC
...before, though simplified in obvious ways. This system is known as the monadic LPC; it provides a logic of properties but not of relations. One important characteristic of this system is that it is decidable. (The introduction of even a single dyadic predicate variable, however, would make the system undecidable, and, in fact, even the system that contains only a single dyadic predicate...