Putting Logic in Its Place

Putting Logic in Its Place
Author: David Christensen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2004-11-04
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 0199263256

What role, if any, does formal logic play in characterizing epistemically rational belief? Traditionally, belief is seen in a binary way - either one believes a proposition, or one doesn't. Given this picture, it is attractive to impose certain deductive constraints on rational belief: that one's beliefs be logically consistent, and that one believe the logical consequences of one's beliefs. A less popular picture sees belief as a graded phenomenon. This picture (explored more bydecision-theorists and philosophers of science thatn by mainstream epistemologists) invites the use of probabilistic coherence to constrain rational belief. But this latter project has often involved defining graded beliefs in terms of preferences, which may seem to change the subject away fromepistemic rationality.Putting Logic in its Place explores the relations between these two ways of seeing beliefs. It argues that the binary conception, although it fits nicely with much of our commonsense thought and talk about belief, cannot in the end support the traditional deductive constraints on rational belief. Binary beliefs that obeyed these constraints could not answer to anything like our intuitive notion of epistemic rationality, and would end up having to be divorced from central aspects of ourcognitive, practical, and emotional lives.But this does not mean that logic plays no role in rationality. Probabilistic coherence should be viewed as using standard logic to constrain rational graded belief. This probabilistic constraint helps explain the appeal of the traditional deductive constraints, and even underlies the force of rationally persuasive deductive arguments. Graded belief cannot be defined in terms of preferences. But probabilistic coherence may be defended without positing definitional connections between beliefsand preferences. Like the traditional deductive constraints, coherence is a logical ideal that humans cannot fully attain. Nevertheless, it furnishes a compelling way of understanding a key dimension of epistemic rationality.

The Dialogical Roots of Deduction

The Dialogical Roots of Deduction
Author: Catarina Dutilh Novaes
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 287
Release: 2020-12-17
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 110847988X

The first comprehensive account of the concept and practices of deduction covering philosophy, history, cognition and mathematical practice.

The Psychology of Proof

The Psychology of Proof
Author: Lance J. Rips
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 476
Release: 1994
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780262181532

Lance Rips describes a unified theory of natural deductive reasoning and fashions a working model of deduction, with strong experimental support, that is capable of playing a central role in mental life.

Logic-Based Artificial Intelligence

Logic-Based Artificial Intelligence
Author: Jack Minker
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 640
Release: 2000-12-31
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 9780792372240

The use of mathematical logic as a formalism for artificial intelligence was recognized by John McCarthy in 1959 in his paper on Programs with Common Sense. In a series of papers in the 1960's he expanded upon these ideas and continues to do so to this date. It is now 41 years since the idea of using a formal mechanism for AI arose. It is therefore appropriate to consider some of the research, applications and implementations that have resulted from this idea. In early 1995 John McCarthy suggested to me that we have a workshop on Logic-Based Artificial Intelligence (LBAI). In June 1999, the Workshop on Logic-Based Artificial Intelligence was held as a consequence of McCarthy's suggestion. The workshop came about with the support of Ephraim Glinert of the National Science Foundation (IIS-9S2013S), the American Association for Artificial Intelligence who provided support for graduate students to attend, and Joseph JaJa, Director of the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies who provided both manpower and financial support, and the Department of Computer Science. We are grateful for their support. This book consists of refereed papers based on presentations made at the Workshop. Not all of the Workshop participants were able to contribute papers for the book. The common theme of papers at the workshop and in this book is the use of logic as a formalism to solve problems in AI.

Belief and Incompleteness

Belief and Incompleteness
Author: Kurt Konolige
Publisher:
Total Pages: 78
Release: 1984
Genre: Analysis (Philosophy)
ISBN:

Both agents are state-of-theart constructions, incorporating the latest Al research in chess playing, natural-language understanding, planning, etc. But because of the overwhelming combinatorics of' chess, neither they nor the fastest foreseeable computers would be able to search the entire game tree to find out whether White has a forced win. Why then do they come to such an odd conclusion about their own knowledge of the game? The chess scenario is an anecdotal example of the way inaccurate cognitive models can lead to behavior that is less than intelligent in artificial agents. In this case, the agents' model of belief is not correct. They make the assumption that an agent actually knows all the consequences of his beliefs. S1 knows that chess is a finite game, and thus reasons that, in principle, knowing the rules of chess is all that is required to figure out whether White has a forced ini%ial win. Mter learning that S2 does indeed know the rules of chess he comes to the erroneous conclusion that S2 also knows this particular consequence of the rules. And S2 himself, reflecting on his own knowledge in the same manner, arrives at the same conclusion, even though in actual fact he could never carry out the computations necessary to demonstrate it.

Classic Works of the Dempster-Shafer Theory of Belief Functions

Classic Works of the Dempster-Shafer Theory of Belief Functions
Author: Ronald R. Yager
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 813
Release: 2008-01-22
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 354044792X

This is a collection of classic research papers on the Dempster-Shafer theory of belief functions. The book is the authoritative reference in the field of evidential reasoning and an important archival reference in a wide range of areas including uncertainty reasoning in artificial intelligence and decision making in economics, engineering, and management. The book includes a foreword reflecting the development of the theory in the last forty years.

Hume's Problem

Hume's Problem
Author: Colin Howson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2000
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0198250371

This volume offers a solution to one of the central, unsolved problems of Western philosophy, that of induction. It explores the implications of Hume's argument that successful prediction tells us nothing about the truth of the predicting theory.

Belief, Truth and Knowledge

Belief, Truth and Knowledge
Author: D. M. Armstrong
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 246
Release: 1973-02-08
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780521087063

A wide-ranging study of the central concepts in epistemology - belief, truth and knowledge. Professor Armstrong offers a dispositional account of general beliefs and of knowledge of general propositions. Belief about particular matters of fact are described as structures in the mind of the believer which represent or 'map' reality, while general beliefs are dispositions to extend the 'map' or introduce casual relations between portions of the map according to general rules. 'Knowledge' denotes the reliability of such beliefs as representations of reality. Within this framework Professor Armstrong offers a distinctive account of many of the main questions in general epistemology - the relations between beliefs and language, the notions of proposition, concept and idea, the analysis of truth, the varieties of knowledge, and the way in which beleifs and knowledge are supported by reasons. The book as a whole if offered as a contribution to a naturalistic account of man.