Designing Normative Theories for Ethical and Legal Reasoning: LogiKEy Framework, Methodology, and Tool Support

A framework and methodology---termed LogiKEy---for the design and engineering of ethical reasoners, normative theories and deontic logics is presented. The overall motivation is the development of suitable means for the control and governance of intelligent autonomous systems. LogiKEy's unifying formal framework is based on semantical embeddings of deontic logics, logic combinations and ethico-legal domain theories in expressive classic higher-order logic (HOL). This meta-logical approach enables the provision of powerful tool support in LogiKEy: off-the-shelf theorem provers and model finders for HOL are assisting the LogiKEy designer of ethical intelligent agents to flexibly experiment with underlying logics and their combinations, with ethico-legal domain theories, and with concrete examples---all at the same time. Continuous improvements of these off-the-shelf provers, without further ado, leverage the reasoning performance in LogiKEy. Case studies, in which the LogiKEy framework and methodology has been applied and tested, give evidence that HOL's undecidability often does not hinder efficient experimentation.Comment: 50 pages; 10 figure

Automatic Generation of Proof Tactics for Finite-Valued Logics

A number of flexible tactic-based logical frameworks are nowadays available that can implement a wide range of mathematical theories using a common higher-order metalanguage. Used as proof assistants, one of the advantages of such powerful systems resides in their responsiveness to extensibility of their reasoning capabilities, being designed over rule-based programming languages that allow the user to build her own `programs to construct proofs' - the so-called proof tactics. The present contribution discusses the implementation of an algorithm that generates sound and complete tableau systems for a very inclusive class of sufficiently expressive finite-valued propositional logics, and then illustrates some of the challenges and difficulties related to the algorithmic formation of automated theorem proving tactics for such logics. The procedure on whose implementation we will report is based on a generalized notion of analyticity of proof systems that is intended to guarantee termination of the corresponding automated tactics on what concerns theoremhood in our targeted logics

Semantical Investigations on Non-classical Logics with Recovery Operators: Negation

We investigate mathematical structures that provide a natural semantics for families of (quantified) non-classical logics featuring special unary connectives, called recovery operators, that allow us to 'recover' the properties of classical logic in a controlled fashion. These structures are called topological Boolean algebras. They are Boolean algebras extended with additional unary operations, called operators, such that they satisfy particular conditions of a topological nature. In the present work we focus on the paradigmatic case of negation. We show how these algebras are well-suited to provide a semantics for some families of paraconsistent Logics of Formal Inconsistency and paracomplete Logics of Formal Undeterminedness, which feature recovery operators used to earmark propositions that behave 'classically' in interaction with non-classical negations. In contrast to traditional semantical investigations, carried out in natural language (extended with mathematical shorthand), our formal meta-language is a system of higher-order logic (HOL) for which automated reasoning tools exist. In our approach, topological Boolean algebras become encoded as algebras of sets via their Stone-type representation. We employ our higher-order meta-logic to define and interrelate several transformations on unary set operations (operators), which naturally give rise to a topological cube of opposition. Furthermore, our approach allows for a uniform characterization of propositional, first-order and higher-order quantification (also restricted to constant and varying domains). With this work we want to make a case for the utilization of automated theorem proving technology for doing computer-supported research in non-classical logics. All presented results have been formally verified (and in many cases obtained) using the Isabelle/HOL proof assistant

Deciding regular grammar logics with converse through first-order logic

We provide a simple translation of the satisfiability problem for regular grammar logics with converse into GF2, which is the intersection of the guarded fragment and the 2-variable fragment of first-order logic. This translation is theoretically interesting because it translates modal logics with certain frame conditions into first-order logic, without explicitly expressing the frame conditions. A consequence of the translation is that the general satisfiability problem for regular grammar logics with converse is in EXPTIME. This extends a previous result of the first author for grammar logics without converse. Using the same method, we show how some other modal logics can be naturally translated into GF2, including nominal tense logics and intuitionistic logic. In our view, the results in this paper show that the natural first-order fragment corresponding to regular grammar logics is simply GF2 without extra machinery such as fixed point-operators.Comment: 34 page

Systematic Verification of the Modal Logic Cube in Isabelle/HOL

We present an automated verification of the well-known modal logic cube in Isabelle/HOL, in which we prove the inclusion relations between the cube's logics using automated reasoning tools. Prior work addresses this problem but without restriction to the modal logic cube, and using encodings in first-order logic in combination with first-order automated theorem provers. In contrast, our solution is more elegant, transparent and effective. It employs an embedding of quantified modal logic in classical higher-order logic. Automated reasoning tools, such as Sledgehammer with LEO-II, Satallax and CVC4, Metis and Nitpick, are employed to achieve full automation. Though successful, the experiments also motivate some technical improvements in the Isabelle/HOL tool.Comment: In Proceedings PxTP 2015, arXiv:1507.0837