The literal translation of the Latin "''salva veritate''" is "with (or by) unharmed truth", using ablative of manner: "''salva''" meaning "rescue," "salvation," or "welfare," and "''veritate''" meaning "reality" or "truth". Thus, ''Salva veritate'' (or intersubstitutivity) is the logical condition by which two expressions may be interchanged without altering the truth-value of statements in which the expressions occur. Substitution ''salva veritate'' of co-extensional terms can fail in

opaque context An opaque context or referentially opaque context is a linguistic context in which it is not always possible to substitute "co-referential" expressions (expressions referring to the same object) without altering the truth of sentences. The expres ...

Leibniz

The phrase occurs in two fragments from

Gottfried Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of mat ...

's ''General Science. Characteristics'': * In Chapter 19, Definition 1, Leibniz writes: "Two terms are the same (''eadem'') if one can be substituted for the other ''without altering the truth of any statement'' (''salva veritate'')." * In Chapter 20, Definition 1, Leibniz writes: "Terms which can be substituted for one another wherever we please ''without altering the truth of any statement'' (''salva veritate''), are the same (''eadem'') or coincident (''coincidentia''). For example, ' triangle' and 'trilateral', for in every proposition demonstrated by

Euclid Euclid (; grc-gre, Εὐκλείδης; BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician. Considered the "father of geometry", he is chiefly known for the ''Elements'' treatise, which established the foundations of ge ...

concerning 'triangle', 'trilateral' can be substituted ''without loss of truth'' (''salva veritate'')."

Quine

W.V.O. Quine Willard Van Orman Quine (; known to his friends as "Van"; June 25, 1908 – December 25, 2000) was an American philosopher and logician in the analytic tradition, recognized as "one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century". ...

takes substitutivity ''salva veritate'' to be the same as the "indiscernibility of identicals". Given a true statement, one of its two terms may be substituted for the other in any true statement and the result will be true. He continues to show that depending on context, the statement may change in value. In fact, the whole quantified

modal logic Modal logic is a collection of formal systems developed to represent statements about necessity and possibility. It plays a major role in philosophy of language, epistemology, metaphysics, and natural language semantics. Modal logics extend other ...

of necessity is dependent on context and empty otherwise; for it collapses if essence is withdrawn.W.V.O. Quine, ''Quintessence: Reference and Modality'', 2004, pp. 356–357 For example, the statements: are true; however, replacement of the name 'Giorgione' by the name 'Barbarelli' turns (2) into the falsehood: Quine's example here refers to Giorgio Barbarelli's sobriquet "Giorgione", an Italian name roughly glossed as "Big George."

References

Bibliography

Clarence Irving Lewis Clarence Irving Lewis (April 12, 1883 – February 3, 1964), usually cited as C. I. Lewis, was an American academic philosopher. He is considered the progenitor of modern modal logic and the founder of conceptual pragmatism. First a noted logic ...

, ''A Survey of Symbolic Logic'', Appendix, Dover.

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{{Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Latin logical phrases Concepts in logic

Leibniz

Quine

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