76 research outputs found

    Argument-based Belief in Topological Structures

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    This paper combines two studies: a topological semantics for epistemic notions and abstract argumentation theory. In our combined setting, we use a topological semantics to represent the structure of an agent's collection of evidence, and we use argumentation theory to single out the relevant sets of evidence through which a notion of beliefs grounded on arguments is defined. We discuss the formal properties of this newly defined notion, providing also a formal language with a matching modality together with a sound and complete axiom system for it. Despite the fact that our agent can combine her evidence in a 'rational' way (captured via the topological structure), argument-based beliefs are not closed under conjunction. This illustrates the difference between an agent's reasoning abilities (i.e. the way she is able to combine her available evidence) and the closure properties of her beliefs. We use this point to argue for why the failure of closure under conjunction of belief should not bear the burden of the failure of rationality.Comment: In Proceedings TARK 2017, arXiv:1707.0825

    Uncertainty About Evidence

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    We develop a logical framework for reasoning about knowledge and evidence in which the agent may be uncertain about how to interpret their evidence. Rather than representing an evidential state as a fixed subset of the state space, our models allow the set of possible worlds that a piece of evidence corresponds to to vary from one possible world to another, and therefore itself be the subject of uncertainty. Such structures can be viewed as (epistemically motivated) generalizations of topological spaces. In this context, there arises a natural distinction between what is actually entailed by the evidence and what the agent knows is entailed by the evidence -- with the latter, in general, being much weaker. We provide a sound and complete axiomatization of the corresponding bi-modal logic of knowledge and evidence entailment, and investigate some natural extensions of this core system, including the addition of a belief modality and its interaction with evidence interpretation and entailment, and the addition of a "knowability" modality interpreted via a (generalized) interior operator.Comment: In Proceedings TARK 2019, arXiv:1907.0833

    On the Expressive Power of Linear Algebra on Graphs

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    Most graph query languages are rooted in logic. By contrast, in this paper we consider graph query languages rooted in linear algebra. More specifically, we consider MATLANG, a matrix query language recently introduced, in which some basic linear algebra functionality is supported. We investigate the problem of characterising equivalence of graphs, represented by their adjacency matrices, for various fragments of MATLANG. A complete picture is painted of the impact of the linear algebra operations in MATLANG on their ability to distinguish graphs

    Complexity thresholds in inclusion logic

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    Inclusion logic differs from many other logics of dependence and independence in that it can only describe polynomial-time properties. In this article we examine more closely connections between syntactic fragments of inclusion logic and different complexity classes. Our focus is on two computational problems: maximal subteam membership and the model checking problem for a fixed inclusion logic formula. We show that very simple quantifier-free formulae with one or two inclusion atoms generate instances of these problems that are complete for (non-deterministic) logarithmic space and polynomial time. We also present a safety game for the maximal subteam membership problem and use it to investigate this problem over teams in which one variable is a key. Furthermore, we relate our findings to consistent query answering over inclusion dependencies, and present a fragment of inclusion logic that captures non-deterministic logarithmic space in ordered models. (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc.Peer reviewe

    Epistemic logics with structured knowledge

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    Multi-agent Dynamic Epistemic Logic, as a suitable modal logic to reason about knowledge evolving systems, has emerged in a number of contexts and scenarios. The agents knowledge in this logic is simply characterised by valuations of propositions. This paper discusses the adoption of other richer structures to make these representations, as graphs, algebras or even epistemic models. This method of building epistemic logics over richer structures is called “Epistemisation”. On this view a parametric method to build such Epistemic Logics with Public Announcements is introduced. Moreover, a parametric notion of bisimulation is presented, and the modal invariance of the proposed logics, with respect to this relation, are proved. Some interesting application horizons opened with this construction are stated.publishe
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