Negation (Contradictory or Denial)

Negation is primarily and simply the not in any statement, as

for example, It is not the case that Japan is a country in Africa, or
Not all Filipinos speak Cebuano. Negation is also called denial or
contradictory (the latter in its noun form); the terms are
interchangeable. One may substitute the phrase a negation of a
statement, to a denial of a statement or a contradictory of a
statement.

In symbolic logic, negation is represented by the symbol called

the tilde (~). Filipinos (and other Spanish-speaking nationalities) are
familiar with this symbol as it is the same symbol found in the Filipino
letter, ,which is borrowed from the Spanish alphabet.

To make a negation, the use of the tilde in symbolic logic is

pretty much straightforward. A statement about Philippine provinces
may be represented by a capital letter, i.e. the letter P, as an initial
for the word province. To make a negation, one simply adds the tilde
before the P; hence, it would read ~P.

To make it clearer, a complete statement should be given: P =

All provinces are created by law. Adding the tilde before the P will
result in a negation: ~P = Not all provinces are created by law.

The use of the tilde to create a negation is not limited to a

complete negative, like the example above. The use of the tilde may
create the following negations, which may or may not be complete
opposites of the original statement. Thus,

~P = Some provinces are not created by law.

~P = There are a few provinces not created by law.
~P = It is not the case that all provinces are created by law.
~P = It is not true that all provinces are created by law.
~P = It is false that all provinces are created by law.

The first two are not complete negatives or opposites, as it

remains true that some or many provinces are created by law, while
the last three are complete ones. As it can be gleaned, the use of the
tilde on the P statement may mean any of the above lines, although
such lines do not appear to exactly mean the same thing.

As for the truth table of negation, it is also straightforward. By

using the same statement P, which of course may be replaced by any
statement, we arrive at the following table:
 S ~S
True False
False True

To put it in words, if the statement P is true, in value, then its negation

is false, in value. Similarly, if statement P is false, then its negation is
true. To give a concrete example:

S ~S
True = False =
The majority of students read their It is not the case that the majority
cases. of the students read their cases.
False = True =
The photocopy charge at SBCA is The photocopy charge at SBCA is
fifty centavos per page. not fifty centavos per page.