Problems with nested Predicate in FOL

114 Views Asked by At

In my teacher's lecture, its have a problems like this: execute statements based on the following base predicates

  • $L(x)$: $x$ is a logician

  • $f(x)$: a function that return values is a friend of $x$

So, performs this sentences to logic predicate:

There are some people who are friends of $x$ who are also logicians

The results is: $\exists x L(f(x))$ but its not supposed like this $\exists x, y L(x) \land y = f(x)$?

I dont know why but is this the same or not? Then can I replace nested predicate instead of $\land$, too?

1

There are 1 best solutions below

2
On BEST ANSWER

$$\exists x L(f(x))$$

and $$\exists x, y \ L(x) \land y = f(x)$$

are not equivalent: in the second statement, you are saying that $x$ is a logician, but it should be that the friend of $x$ is a logician. So, what you can do is:

$$\exists x, y \ L(y) \land y = f(x)$$

and that statement is equivalent to

$$\exists x L(f(x))$$