Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

#1: Initial revision by user avatar celtschk‭ · 2020-11-10T08:23:18Z (over 3 years ago)
According to the definition you quote, “unless” gives an exception to a preceding negative statement. An exception to a statement is a condition in which the statement does not apply. Therefore the statement does apply only if the condition is *not* fulfilled (because otherwise the exception applies, and therefore the statement does not). Therefore, as far as logic is concerned, “unless” translates into “if not”.

In describing an exception, the “unless” phrase *also* suggests that the condition is generally not fulfilled, but that part is irrelevant from a logical point of view (the logic only cares about the truth/falsehood of statements, not about the probability that they will be found to be true).