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(a statement of material equivalence), and can be likened to the standard material conditional ("only if", equal to "if ... then") combined with its converse ("if"); hence the name. The result is that the truth of either one of the connected statements requires the truth of the other (i.e. either both statements are true, or both are false), though it is controversial whether the connective thus defined is properly rendered by the English "if and only if"--with its pre-existing meaning. For

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