[FOM] Terminology

Marcin Mostowski m.mostowski at uw.edu.pl
Sun Nov 25 12:48:47 EST 2012


In polish logical terminology there is a common term "kontrtautologia" used for sentences false under all interpretations. 

see polish wikipedia: http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kontrtautologia

It is used also in english version "contrtautology".
I suppose that Makinson's "countertautology" is another english version of the same term.

After short checking I observed that practically there is no term for this notion used in English by non-polish authors. It was surprising for me because the notion seems to be important and useful.

Marcin Mostowski
Warsaw University

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I am fond of "countertautology" which I believe I picked up from Makinson's Topics in Modern Logic . 

Jack Woods 
Princeton University 
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dear all, 

The standard English word for sentences (or propositions) 
that are always true is 'tautology'. Is there a word for 
sentences that are always false? (No, I don't want to hear 
'contradiction', for that is defined as a sentence of the 
form 'p and not-p', or something logically equivalent to it, 
and therefore is a syntactical notion.) 

--> F.A. Muller 
Utrecht University 


More information about the FOM mailing list