------------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: Negating Nested Quantifiers ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Here are some comments on negating nested quantifiers that you might find helpful. Consider this proposition: Ax[P(x) -> Ey[R(y) ^ Q(x,y)]] For a slightly more realistic example, suppose we have the following semantics for these predicates: P(x) = x is an integer R(y) = y is a negative integer Q(x,y) = x > y Then our proposition represents the English sentence: For all x, if x is an integer, then there is a y such that y is a negative integer and x > y or, more idiomatically, Any integer is greater than some negative integer. (Hopefully, you believe that!) Let's try to negate this. In what follows, I'll use "equiv" for "is logically equivalent to" (i.e., for the triple bar symbol). -Ax[P(x) -> Ey[R(y) ^ Q(x,y)]] equiv Ex-[P(x) -> Ey[R(y) ^ Q(x,y)]], because -Axp equiv Ex-p equiv Ex-[-P(x) v Ey[R(y) ^ Q(x,y)]], because (p -> q) equiv (-p v q) equiv Ex[--P(x) ^ -Ey[R(y) ^ Q(x,y)]], by DeMorgan equiv Ex[P(x) ^ -Ey[R(y) ^ Q(x,y)]], by DN equiv Ex[P(x) ^ Ay-[R(y) ^ Q(x,y)]], because -Exp equiv Ax-p equiv Ex[P(x) ^ Ay[-R(y) v -Q(x,y)]], by DeMorgan We could stop here, but let's go one step further to make it a bit easier to express in English: The previous proposition is logically equivalent to: Ex[P(x) ^ Ay[R(y) -> -Q(x,y)]], because (p -> q) equiv (-p v q) This says: There is an x such that x is an integer and, for all y, if y is a negative integer, then x is not > y or, more idiomatically, using "<=" for "is less than or equal to" (which is the negation of ">") some integer <= all negative integers (Hopefully, you don't believe that!)