Parenthesis/Examples/Arbitrary Example 1

Examples of Parenthesis

Consider the following this formula of propositional logic:

$p \land q \lor r$

This can mean either:

the conjunction of $p$ with $q \lor r$

or:

the disjunction of $p \land q$ with $r$.

Using parenthesis, the ambiguity is removed by presenting what is required either as:

$p \land \paren {q \lor r}$

or:

$\paren {p \land q} \lor r$

Sources

• 1973: Irving M. Copi: Symbolic Logic (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): $2$ Arguments Containing Compound Statements: $2.1$: Simple and Compound Statements