Can an implication and its converse both be false?

199 Views Asked by At

Is the statement “Every implication or its converse must be true” correct, or is it possible to have both implication and converse be false?

If $A$ stands for "$x$ is a prime number" and $B$ stands for "$x$ is greater than $100$", then both $(A → B)$ and $(B → A)$ are false. Is this a counterexample to the quoted statement? How does this make sense with respect to the truth table of $(A → B) ∨ (B → A)$ showing that it is always true?

1

There are 1 best solutions below

2
On

Put $Px$ for $x$ is prime, and $Gx$ for $x > 100$.

Now distinguish

  1. $\forall x(Px \to Gx) \lor \forall x(Gx \to Px)$

from

  1. $\forall x((Px \to Gx) \lor (Gx \to Px))$

The first I think properly captures the thought that you say is false (for yes, the generalization $\forall x(Px \to Gx)$ is false, and likewise $\forall x(Gx \to Px)$ is false). But (1) is not a logical theorem.

On the other had (2) is a classical theorem, but is not obviously false, once distinguished from (1). Take any $n$ you like. Then either $Pn$ is false, in which case the supposition that $Pn$ is true leads to contradiction, and anything goes, so we get in particular $(Pn \to Gn)$. Or $Pn$ is true, in which case $(Gn \to Pn)$. So either way we get $((Pn \to Gn) \lor (Gn \to Pn))$. But $n$ was arbitrary so we can generalize.