material conditional

A sentential CONNECTIVE, standardly used in PROPOSITIONAL CALCULUS, and sometimes employed in the SEMANTIC analysis of CONDITIONAL and certain QUANTIFICATIONAL SENTENCES. A sentence consisting of two CLAUSES linked by this connective is true if the ANTECEDENT is false or the CONSEQUENT is true; and is false otherwise. The material biconditional is a related connective: a sentence consisting of two clauses connected by the material biconditional is true if the two clauses are identical in TRUTH VALUE, and false otherwise.