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Re: [Coq-Club] constructive proof of (P1 <-> ~ P2) <-> (~ P1 <-> P2)


Chronological Thread 
  • From: Julian Michael <julianjohnmichael AT gmail.com>
  • To: coq-club AT inria.fr
  • Subject: Re: [Coq-Club] constructive proof of (P1 <-> ~ P2) <-> (~ P1 <-> P2)
  • Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2016 09:31:06 -0800
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I think a more concrete way to see it is just to consider instantiating P1
with Bottom. In that case this is equivalent to double negation elimination
~~P2 -> P2, which is not intuitionistically valid.

> On Feb 25, 2016, at 9:16 AM, Jonathan Leivent
> <jonikelee AT gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>
>
>> On 02/25/2016 11:52 AM, Stefan Ciobaca wrote:
>> Hello, coq-club!
>>
>> I'm wondering if the following is provable constructively:
>>
>> forall (P1 P2 : Prop),
>> (P1 <-> ~ P2) <-> (~ P1 <-> P2).
>
> I don't think so. Not being used to constructive logic myself, I use this
> trick (which I'm not sure is always valid - so use at your own risk) to
> spot such cases quickly. Replace each negation of a Prop (~ P1) with a new
> Prop (Q1), and see what that gives you:
>
> forall (P1 P2 Q1 Q2 : Prop),
> (P1 <-> Q2) <-> (Q1 <-> P2).
>
> which is obviously not provable. It's easy to see this way that the two
> sides of the top <-> aren't even talking about the same things. Otherwise,
> my classic logic upbringing causes me to see negation as more meaningful
> than it constructively is, and I get confused.
>
>
> -- Jonathan
>



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