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.

Awareness in Logic and Epistemology

Awareness in Logic and Epistemology
Author: Claudia Fernández-Fernández
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 142
Release: 2021-06-19
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3030696065

This book creates a conceptual schema that acts as a correlation between Epistemology and Epistemic Logic. It connects both fields and offers a proper theoretical foundation for the contemporary developments of Epistemic Logic regarding the dynamics of information. It builds a bridge between the view of Awareness Justification Internalism, and a dynamic approach to Awareness Logic. The book starts with an introduction to the main topics in Epistemic Logic and Epistemology and reviews the disconnection between the two fields. It analyses three core notions representing the basic structure of the conceptual schema: “Epistemic Awareness”, “Knowledge” and “Justification”. Next, it presents the Explicit Aware Knowledge (EAK) Schema, using a diagram of three ellipses to illustrate the schema, and a formal model based on a neighbourhood-model structure, that shows one concrete application of the EAK-Schema into a logical structure. The book ends by presenting conclusions and final remarks about the uses and applications of the EAK-Schema. It shows that the most important feature of the schema is that it serves both as a theoretical correlate to the dynamic extensions of Awareness Logic, providing it with a philosophical background, and as an abstract conceptual structure for a re-interpretation of Epistemology.

CSL '89

CSL '89
Author: Egon Börger
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 452
Release: 1990-07-10
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 9783540527534

This volume contains the revised versions of 28 papers presented at the third workshop on Computer Science Logic held in Kaiserslautern, FRG, October 2-6, 1989. These proceedings cover a wide range of topics both from theoretical and applied areas of computer science. More specifically, the papers deal with problems arising at the border of logic and computer science, e.g. in complexity, data base theory, logic programming, artificial intelligece, and temporal logic. The volume should be of interest to all logicians and computer scientists working in the above field.

Changes of Mind

Changes of Mind
Author: Neil Tennant
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2012-06-14
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0199655758

An account of how a rational agent should revise beliefs in the light of new evidence. Computationally implementable, it provides rigorous mathematical theory of dependency networks and investigates the complexity of algorithms for rational agents revising beliefs.

Theoretical Aspects of Reasoning About Knowledge

Theoretical Aspects of Reasoning About Knowledge
Author: Joseph Y. Halpern
Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2014-05-12
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1483214419

Theoretical Aspects of Reasoning About Knowledge: Proceedings of the 1986 Conference focuses on the principles, methodologies, approaches, and concepts involved in reasoning about knowledge. The selection first provides an overview of reasoning about knowledge, varieties of self-reference, and pegs and alecs. Topics covered include data semantics, partial objects and identity, circumstance, self, and causal connection, structure of circumstance, varieties and limits of self-reference, problem of logical omniscience, and knowledge, communication, and action. The book then explores reasoning about knowledge in artificial intelligence; synthesis of digital machines with provable epistemic properties; and a first order theory of planning, knowledge, and action. The publication ponders on the consistency of syntactical treatments of knowledge, foundations of knowledge for distributed systems, knowledge and implicit knowledge in a distributed environment, and the logic of distributed protocols. Topics include formal syntax and semantics, structure of models, message-based knowledge worlds, changing the class of messages, implicit knowledge in message-based knowledge worlds, conservation and implicit knowledge, and distributed protocols. The selection is a dependable source of data for researchers interested in the theoretical aspects of reasoning about knowledge.

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.

Planning English Sentences

Planning English Sentences
Author: Douglas E. Appelt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 188
Release: 1992-06-26
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780521438032

An investigation into the problems of generating natural language utterances to satisfy specific goals the speaker has in mind.