14,573 research outputs found
Intuitionism and the Modal Logic of Vagueness
Intuitionistic logic provides an elegant solution to the Sorites Paradox. Its acceptance has been hampered by two factors. First, the lack of an accepted semantics for languages containing vague terms has led even philosophers sympathetic to intuitionism to complain that no explanation has been given of why intuitionistic logic is the correct logic for such languages. Second, switching from classical to intuitionistic logic, while it may help with the Sorites, does not appear to offer any advantages when dealing with the so-called paradoxes of higher-order vagueness. We offer a proposal that makes strides on both issues. We argue that the intuitionistâs characteristic rejection of any third alethic value alongside true and false is best elaborated by taking the normal modal system S4M to be the sentential logic of the operator âit is clearly the case thatâ. S4M opens the way to an account of higher-order vagueness which avoids the paradoxes that have been thought to infect the notion. S4M is one of the modal counterparts of the intuitionistic sentential calculus and we use this fact to explain why IPC is the correct sentential logic to use when reasoning with vague statements. We also show that our key results go through in an intuitionistic version of S4M. Finally, we deploy our analysis to reply to Timothy Williamsonâs objections to intuitionistic treatments of vagueness
On the Correspondence between Display Postulates and Deep Inference in Nested Sequent Calculi for Tense Logics
We consider two styles of proof calculi for a family of tense logics,
presented in a formalism based on nested sequents. A nested sequent can be seen
as a tree of traditional single-sided sequents. Our first style of calculi is
what we call "shallow calculi", where inference rules are only applied at the
root node in a nested sequent. Our shallow calculi are extensions of Kashima's
calculus for tense logic and share an essential characteristic with display
calculi, namely, the presence of structural rules called "display postulates".
Shallow calculi enjoy a simple cut elimination procedure, but are unsuitable
for proof search due to the presence of display postulates and other structural
rules. The second style of calculi uses deep-inference, whereby inference rules
can be applied at any node in a nested sequent. We show that, for a range of
extensions of tense logic, the two styles of calculi are equivalent, and there
is a natural proof theoretic correspondence between display postulates and deep
inference. The deep inference calculi enjoy the subformula property and have no
display postulates or other structural rules, making them a better framework
for proof search
Classical BI: Its Semantics and Proof Theory
We present Classical BI (CBI), a new addition to the family of bunched logics
which originates in O'Hearn and Pym's logic of bunched implications BI. CBI
differs from existing bunched logics in that its multiplicative connectives
behave classically rather than intuitionistically (including in particular a
multiplicative version of classical negation). At the semantic level,
CBI-formulas have the normal bunched logic reading as declarative statements
about resources, but its resource models necessarily feature more structure
than those for other bunched logics; principally, they satisfy the requirement
that every resource has a unique dual. At the proof-theoretic level, a very
natural formalism for CBI is provided by a display calculus \`a la Belnap,
which can be seen as a generalisation of the bunched sequent calculus for BI.
In this paper we formulate the aforementioned model theory and proof theory for
CBI, and prove some fundamental results about the logic, most notably
completeness of the proof theory with respect to the semantics.Comment: 42 pages, 8 figure
The present moment in quantum cosmology: challenges to the arguments for the elimination of time
Barbour, Hawking, Misner and others have argued that time cannot play an
essential role in the formulation of a quantum theory of cosmology. Here we
present three challenges to their arguments, taken from works and remarks by
Kauffman, Markopoulou and Newman. These can be seen to be based on two
principles: that every observable in a theory of cosmology should be measurable
by some observer inside the universe, and all mathematical constructions
necessary to the formulation of the theory should be realizable in a finite
time by a computer that fits inside the universe. We also briefly discuss how a
cosmological theory could be formulated so it is in agreement with these
principles.Comment: This is a slightly revised version of an essay published in Time and
the Instant, Robin Durie (ed.) Manchester: Clinamen Press, 200
Dependence in Propositional Logic: Formula-Formula Dependence and Formula Forgetting -- Application to Belief Update and Conservative Extension
Dependence is an important concept for many tasks in artificial intelligence.
A task can be executed more efficiently by discarding something independent
from the task. In this paper, we propose two novel notions of dependence in
propositional logic: formula-formula dependence and formula forgetting. The
first is a relation between formulas capturing whether a formula depends on
another one, while the second is an operation that returns the strongest
consequence independent of a formula. We also apply these two notions in two
well-known issues: belief update and conservative extension. Firstly, we define
a new update operator based on formula-formula dependence. Furthermore, we
reduce conservative extension to formula forgetting.Comment: We find a mistake in this version and we need a period of time to fix
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Fallibilism and Multiple Paths to Knowledge (Extended Version)
This chapter argues that epistemologists should replace a âstandard alternativesâ picture of knowledge, assumed by many fallibilist theories of knowledge, with a new âmultipathâ picture of knowledge. The chapter first identifies a problem for the standard picture: fallibilists working with this picture cannot maintain even the most uncontroversial epistemic closure principles without making extreme assumptions about the ability of humans to know empirical truths without empirical investigation. The chapter then shows how the multipath picture, motivated by independent arguments, saves fallibilism from this problem. The multipath picture is based on taking seriously the idea that there can be multiple paths to knowing some propositions about the world. An overlooked consequence of fallibilism is that these multiple paths to knowledge may involve ruling out different sets of alternatives, which should be represented in a fallibilist picture of knowledge. The chapter concludes by considering inductive knowledge and strong epistemic closure from this multipath perspective
The simplest derivation of the Lorentz transformation
Starting from the well-known light-clock thought experiment to derive time
dilation and length contraction, it is shown that finding the Lorentz
Transformation requires nothing more than the most trivial vector addition
formula. The form which is obtaine for the L.T. allows an easy derivation of
the velocity and acceleration transformations which are also given.Comment: Latex, 4 pages, 1 figure. Two first paragraphs rewritten. Error in
formula corrected. Various typo corrected. Example added (Should really be
V3. But V3 identical to V2 for some reason
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