Dimensions of Neural-symbolic Integration - A Structured Survey

Research on integrated neural-symbolic systems has made significant progress in the recent past. In particular the understanding of ways to deal with symbolic knowledge within connectionist systems (also called artificial neural networks) has reached a critical mass which enables the community to strive for applicable implementations and use cases. Recent work has covered a great variety of logics used in artificial intelligence and provides a multitude of techniques for dealing with them within the context of artificial neural networks. We present a comprehensive survey of the field of neural-symbolic integration, including a new classification of system according to their architectures and abilities.Comment: 28 page

A New Semantic Theory of Natural Language

Formal Semantics and Distributional Semantics are two important semantic frameworks in Natural Language Processing (NLP). Cognitive Semantics belongs to the movement of Cognitive Linguistics, which is based on contemporary cognitive science. Each framework could deal with some meaning phenomena, but none of them fulfills all requirements proposed by applications. A unified semantic theory characterizing all important language phenomena has both theoretical and practical significance; however, although many attempts have been made in recent years, no existing theory has achieved this goal yet. This article introduces a new semantic theory that has the potential to characterize most of the important meaning phenomena of natural language and to fulfill most of the necessary requirements for philosophical analysis and for NLP applications. The theory is based on a unified representation of information, and constructs a kind of mathematical model called cognitive model to interpret natural language expressions in a compositional manner. It accepts the empirical assumption of Cognitive Semantics, and overcomes most shortcomings of Formal Semantics and of Distributional Semantics. The theory, however, is not a simple combination of existing theories, but an extensive generalization of classic logic and Formal Semantics. It inherits nearly all advantages of Formal Semantics, and also provides descriptive contents for objects and events as fine-gram as possible, descriptive contents which represent the results of human cognition

Variable types for meaning assembly: a logical syntax for generic noun phrases introduced by most

This paper proposes a way to compute the meanings associated with sentences with generic noun phrases corresponding to the generalized quantifier most. We call these generics specimens and they resemble stereotypes or prototypes in lexical semantics. The meanings are viewed as logical formulae that can thereafter be interpreted in your favourite models. To do so, we depart significantly from the dominant Fregean view with a single untyped universe. Indeed, our proposal adopts type theory with some hints from Hilbert \epsilon-calculus (Hilbert, 1922; Avigad and Zach, 2008) and from medieval philosophy, see e.g. de Libera (1993, 1996). Our type theoretic analysis bears some resemblance with ongoing work in lexical semantics (Asher 2011; Bassac et al. 2010; Moot, Pr\'evot and Retor\'e 2011). Our model also applies to classical examples involving a class, or a generic element of this class, which is not uttered but provided by the context. An outcome of this study is that, in the minimalism-contextualism debate, see Conrad (2011), if one adopts a type theoretical view, terms encode the purely semantic meaning component while their typing is pragmatically determined

The informational stance: Philosophy and logic. Part I. The basic theories

To better understand what information is and to explain information-related issues has become an essential philosophical task. General concepts from science, ethics and sociology are insufficient. As noted by Floridi, a new philosophy, a Philosophy of Information (PI), is needed. In the 80’s, Wu Kun proposed a “The Basic Theory of the Philosophy of Information”, which became available in English only in 2010. Wu and Joseph Brenner then found that the latter’s non-standard “Logic in Reality” provided critical logical support for Wu’s theory. In Part I of our paper, we outline the two basic theories as a metaphilosophy and metalogic for information. We offer our two theories as a further contribution to an informational paradigm. In Part II [WuB14], we develop the relation between information and social value as a basis for the ethical development of the emerging Information Society

Genuine Process Logic

The Genuine Process Logic described here (abbreviation: GPL) places the object-bound process itself at the center of formalism. It should be suitable for everyday use, i.e. it is not primarily intended for the formalization of computer programs, but instead, as a counter-conception to the classical state logics. The new and central operator of the GPL is an action symbol replacing the classical state symbols, e.g. of equivalence or identity. The complete renunciation of object-language state expressions also results in a completely new metalinguistic framework, both regarding the axioms and the expressive possibilities of this system. A mixture with state logical terms is readily possible