A Crash Course in Predicate Logic

Hillel Wayne · 1 Sept 2026

Hillel Wayne did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
Expressing properties in formal logic is less ambiguous than expressing them in informal English.

Their wordsExpressing properties with formal logic is less ambiguous than with informal English.
Our reading
The more a language, format or tool is able to do, the fewer things it guarantees.

Their wordsThis is the ability-guarantee tradeoff: the more things a language or format or tool is able to do, the fewer things it guarantees us.

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