If you
love me, then if you hurt me I wouldn’t cry.
If you
lie and I don’t cry, I cry.
You lie.
Not that when you don’t hurt me I don’t cry.
[Contraposition]
If when you hurt me I cry, then you don’t
love me. [Double Negation]
If you lie, then when I don’t cry, I cry.
[Exportation]
I have to not not cry, or cry.
[Modus Ponens]
Either I cry, or I cry.
[Change of Connectives]
So, I cry.
[Double Negation]
I cry, or you don’t hurt me.
[Tautology]
Don’t hurt me or I cry.
[Addition]
If you hurt me, then I cry.
[Commutation]
Therefore you don’t love me.
[Modus Ponens]
The accompanying poem was written based on
a formal logical proof. Unfortunately not all of the symbols
are supported by all browsers, so if some of the logic is
missing, enjoy the poems without the complete logical explanation
The proof is provided below.
Given the 3 premises, the remaining lines
follow directly from rules of sentential logic. The four variables
were assigned the following values.
p = “You love
me”
q = “You hurt
me”
r = “I cry”
s = “You lie”
Premises:
1. 
2. 
3. 
/ 
Proof:
4. 
[1, Contraposition]
5. 
[4, Double Negation]
6. 
[2, Exportation]
7. 
[6, Modus Ponens]
8. 
[7, Change of Connectives]
9. 
[8, Double Negation]
10. 
[9, Tautology]
11. 
[10, Addition]
12. 
[11, Commutation]
13. 
[12, Change of Connectives]
14. 
[5, Modus Ponens]
Mohandas Charles lives and works in Montreal as a
high school Mathematics teacher. He writes mostly short fiction,
but occasionally dabbles in poetry. He is a fabulous cook,
He can name at least 10 or 12 constellations and knows the
first 300 digits of pi by heart.
mohandas@canada.com
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