Soundness and Completeness

Section 4.8 showed us that we can prove two statements are semantically equivalent with truth tables and provably equivalent with deduction proofs. Does it matter which approach we use? Will there ever be a time when two statements are semantically equivalent but not provably equivalent, or vice versa? Will there ever be a time when a set of premises semantically entails a conclusion, but that the premises do not prove (using our deduction proofs) the conclusion, or vice versa?

These questions lead us to the notions of soundness and completeness. Formal treatment of both concepts is beyond the scope of this course, but we will introduce both definitions and a rough idea of the proofs of soundness and completeness in propositional logic.

Soundness

A proof system is sound if everything that is provable is actually true. Propositional logic is sound if when we use deduction rules to prove that P1, P2, ..., Pn ⊢ C (that a set of premises proves a conclusion) then we can also use a truth table to show that P1, P2, ..., Pn ⊨ C (that a set of premises semantically entails a conclusion).

Propositional logic is, in fact, sound.

To get an idea of the proof, consider the ∧e1 deduction rule. It allows us to directly prove:

P ∧ Q ⊢ P

I.e., if we have P ∧ Q as a premise or as a claim in part of a proof, then we can use ∧e1 to conclude P. We must also show that:

P ∧ Q ⊨ P

I.e., that any time P ∧ Q is true in a truth table, then P is also true. And of course, we can examine the truth table for P ∧ Q, and see that it is only true in the cases that P is also true.

Consider the ∧i deduction rule next. It allows us to directly prove:

P, Q ⊢ P ∧ Q

I.e., if we have both P and Q as premises or claims in part of a proof, then we can use ∧i to conclude P ∧ Q. We must also show that:

P, Q ⊨ P ∧ Q

I.e., that any time both P and Q are true in a truth table, then P ∧ Q is also true. And of course, we can examine the truth table for P ∧ Q and see that whenever P and Q are true, then P ∧ Q is also true.

To complete the soundness proof, we would need to examine the rest of our deduction rules in a similar process. We would then use an approach called mathematical induction (which we will see for other applications in Chapter 7) to extend the idea to a proof that applies multiple deduction rules in a row.

Completeness

A proof system is complete if everything that is true can be proved. Propositional logic is complete if when we can use a truth table to show that P1, P2, ..., Pn ⊨ C, then we can also use deduction rules to prove that P1, P2, ..., Pn ⊢ C.

Propositional logic is also complete.

We assume that P1, P2, ..., Pn ⊨ C, and we consider the truth table for (P1 ∧ P2 ∧ ... ∧ Pn) → C (since that will be a tautology whenever P1, P2, ..., Pn ⊨ C). In order to show propositional logic is complete, we must show that we can use our deduction rules to prove P1, P2, ..., Pn ⊢ C.

The idea is to use LEM for each propositional atom A to obtain A ∨ ¬A (corresponding to the truth assignments in the (P1 ∧ P2 ∧ ... ∧ Pn) → C truth table). We then use OR elimination on each combination of truth assignments, with separate cases for each logical operator being used.