In propositional logic and Boolean algebra, there is a duality between conjunction and disjunction, also called the duality principle. It is the most widely known example of duality in logic. The duality consists in these metalogical theorems:
- In classical propositional logic, the connectives for conjunction and disjunction can be defined in terms of each other, and consequently, only one of them needs to be taken as primitive.
- If
is used as notation to designate the result of replacing every instance of conjunction with disjunction, and every instance of disjunction with conjunction (e.g.
with
, or vice-versa), in a given formula
, and if
is used as notation for replacing every sentence-letter in
with its negation (e.g.,
with
), and if the symbol
is used for semantic consequence and ⟚ for semantical equivalence between logical formulas, then it is demonstrable that
⟚
, and also that
if, and only if,
, and furthermore that if
⟚
then
⟚
. (In this context,
is called the dual of a formula
.)