Four-Valued Logics of Truth, Nonfalsity, Exact Truth, and Material Equivalence

Abstract

The four-valued semantics of Belnap–Dunn logic, consisting of the truth values True, False, Neither, and Both, gives rise to several nonclassical logics depending on which feature of propositions we wish to preserve: truth, nonfalsity, or exact truth (truth and nonfalsity). Interpreting equality of truth values in this semantics as material equivalence of propositions, we can moreover see the equational consequence relation of this four-element algebra as a logic of material equivalence. In this paper, we axiomatize all combinations of these four-valued logics, for example, the logic of truth and exact truth or the logic of truth and material equivalence. These combined systems are consequence relations which allow us to express implications involving more than one of these features of propositions.