Salva veritate

Salva veritate refers to two expressions that can be interchanged without changing the truth-value of the statements in which they occur. The phrase occurs in two fragments from Gottfried Leibniz'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 concerning 'triangle', 'trilateral' can be substituted without loss of truth (salva veritate)."

The literal translation of the Latin "salva veritate" is "with unharmed truth", using ablative of manner.

See also

• Truth function

References

• Philosophical Dictionary
• Clarence Irving Lewis, A Survey of Symbolic Logic, Appendix, Dover.