A statement that something—the consequent clause—will be true provided that something—else the antecedent clause—is true. For example ‘if n is divisible by 2, n is even’ is a conditional statement, in which the antecedent is ‘n is divisible by 2’ and the consequent is ‘n is even’.
1. Taken account of in some but not all circumstances.
2. A logic statement of the form
that should be read as ‘if P is true then Q follows’, although its meaning in logic only partly resembles its usage in English (see table).
conditional. Truth Table
Any proposition of the form ‘if p then q’. The condition hypothesized, p, is called the antecedent of the conditional, and q the consequent. Various kinds of conditional have been distinguished. The weakest is that of material implication, merely telling us that either not-p, or q. Stronger conditionals include elements of modality, corresponding to the thought that ‘if p is true then q must be true’. Ordinary language is very flexible in its use of the conditional form, and there is controversy whether conditionals are better treated semantically, yielding different kinds of conditionals with different meanings, or pragmatically, in which case there should be one basic meaning, with surface differences arising from other implicatures. See also Adams’s thesis, counterfactual conditional, material conditional, strict implication.
- Paris, Pact of
- Paris, Peace of (1783)
- Paris Peace Settlement
- Paris, Treaty of (1763)
- parity
- parity bit
- parity check
- parity-check code
- parivincular
- park
- Parker, Matt (1980– )
- Parker, Robert Allan Ridley (1936– )
- Parker Solar Probe
- Parkes, Alexander
- Parkes Observatory
- Parkes process
- parking orbit
- parking spot
- Park, Mungo (1771–1806)
- Parlement
- Parliament, British
- Parlog
- Parmenides of Elea (b. c.515)
- Parmitano, Luca (1976– )
- parna