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Concept
Converse (logic)
Summary
In logic and mathematics, the converse of a categorical or implicational statement is the result of reversing its two constituent statements. For the implication P → Q, the converse is Q → P. For the categorical proposition All S are P, the converse is All P are S. Either way, the truth of the converse is generally independent from that of the original statement.
Let S be a statement of the form P implies Q (P → Q). Then the converse of S is the statement Q implies P (Q → P). In general, the truth of S says nothing about the truth of its converse, unless the antecedent P and the consequent Q are logically equivalent.
For example, consider the true statement "If I am a human, then I am mortal." The converse of that statement is "If I am mortal, then I am a human," which is not necessarily true.
On the other hand, the converse of a statement with mutually inclusive terms remains true, given the truth of the original proposition. This is equivalent to saying that the converse of a definition is true. Thus, the statement "If I am a triangle, then I am a three-sided polygon" is logically equivalent to "If I am a three-sided polygon, then I am a triangle", because the definition of "triangle" is "three-sided polygon".
A truth table makes it clear that S and the converse of S are not logically equivalent, unless both terms imply each other:
Going from a statement to its converse is the fallacy of affirming the consequent. However, if the statement S and its converse are equivalent (i.e., P is true if and only if Q is also true), then affirming the consequent will be valid.
Converse implication is logically equivalent to the disjunction of and
In natural language, this could be rendered "not Q without P".
In mathematics, the converse of a theorem of the form P → Q will be Q → P. The converse may or may not be true, and even if true, the proof may be difficult. For example, the Four-vertex theorem was proved in 1912, but its converse was proved only in 1997.
Official source
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