Indicative conditionals, restricted quantification, and naive truth

This paper extends Kripke’s theory of truth to a language with a variably strict conditional operator, of the kind that Stalnaker and others have used to represent ordinary indicative conditionals of English. It then shows how to combine this with a different and independently motivated conditional operator, to get a substantial logic of restricted quantification within naive truth theory

Seeing, Knowing, doing : case studies in modal logic

Dans le domaine des jeux vidéos par exemple, surtout des jeux de rôles, les personnages virtuels perçoivent un environnement, en tirent des connaissances puis effectuent des actions selon leur besoin. De même en robotique, un robot perçoit son environnement à l'aide de capteurs/caméras, établit une base de connaissances et effectuent des mouvements etc. La description des comportements de ces agents virtuels et leurs raisonnements peut s'effectuer à l'aide d'un langage logique. Dans cette thèse, on se propose de modéliser les trois aspects "voir", "savoir" et "faire" et leurs interactions à l'aide de la logique modale. Dans une première partie, on modélise des agents dans un espace géométrique puis on définit une relation épistémique qui tient compte des positions et du regard des agents. Dans une seconde partie, on revisite la logique des actions "STIT" (see-to-it-that ou "faire en sorte que") qui permet de faire la différence entre les principes "de re" et "de dicto", contrairement à d'autres logiques modales des actions. Dans une troisième partie, on s'intéresse à modéliser quelques aspects de la théorie des jeux dans une variante de la logique "STIT" ainsi que des émotions contre-factuelles comme le regret. Tout au long de cette thèse, on s'efforcera de s'intéresser aux aspects logiques comme les complétudes des axiomatisations et la complexité du problème de satisfiabilité d'une formule logique. L'intégration des trois concepts "voir", "savoir" et "faire" dans une et une seule logique est évoquée en conclusion et reste une question ouverte.Agents are entities who perceive their environment and who perform actions. For instance in role playing video games, ennemies are agents who perceive some part of the virtual world and who can attack or launch a sortilege. Another example may concern robot assistance for disabled people: the robot perceives obstacles of the world and can alert humans or help them. Here, we try to give formal tools to model knowledge reasoning about the perception of their environment and about actions based, on modal logic. First, we give combine the standard epistemic modal logic with perception constructions of the form (agent a sees agent b). We give a semantics in terms of position and orientation of the agents in the space that can be a line (Lineland) or a plane (Flatland). Concerning Lineland, we provide a complete axiomatization and an optimal procedure for model-checking and satisfiability problem. Concerning Flatland, we show that both model-checking and satisfiability problem are decidable but the exact complexities and the axiomatization remain open problems. Thus, the logics of Lineland and Flatland are completely a new approach: their syntax is epistemic but their semantics concern spatial reasoning. Secondly, we study on the logic of agency ``see-to-it-that'' STIT made up of construction of the form [J]A standing for ``the coalition of agents J sees to it that A''. Our interest is motivated: STIT is strictly more expressive that standard modal logic for agency like Coalition Logic CL or Alternating-time Temporal Logic ATL. In CL or ATL the ``de re'' and ``de dicto'' problem is quite difficult and technical whereas if we combine STIT-operators with epistemic operators, we can solve it in a natural way. However this strong expressivity has a prize: the general version of STIT is undecidable. That is why we focus on some syntactic fragments of STIT: either we restrict the allowed coalitions J in constructions [J]A or we restrict the nesting of modal STIT-operators. We provide axiomatizations and complexity results. Finally, we give flavour to epistemic modal logic by adding STIT-operators. The logic STIT is suitable to express counterfactual statements like ``agent a could have choosen an action such that A have been true''. Thus we show how to model counterfactual emotions like regret, rejoicing, disappointment and elation in this framework. We also model epistemic games by adapting the logic STIT by giving explicitely names of actions in the language. In this framework, we can model the notion of rational agents but other kind of behaviour like altruism etc., Nash equilibrium and iterated deletion of strictly dominated strategies

Axiomatic Specification of Database Domain Statics

In the past ten years, much work has been done to add more structure to database models 1 than what is represented by a mere collection of flat relations (Albano & Cardelli [1985], Albano et al. [1986], Borgida eta. [1984], Brodie [1984], Brodie & Ridjanovic [1984], Brodie & Silva (1982], Codd (1979], Hammer & McLeod (1981], King (1984], King & McLeod [1984], [1985], Mylopoulos et al. [1980], Smith & Smith 1977a & b). 2 The informal approach which most of these studies advocate has a number of disadvantages. First, a recent survey of some of the pro­ posed models by Urban & Delcambre [1986] reveals a wide divergence in terminology and con­ cepts, making comparison of the expressive power of these models difficult. Second, undefined or even ill-defined concepts are a hindrance, not an aid, for the analysis of the Universe of Discourse (UoD). Third, informal treatment 9f such complex structures as set hierarchies, gen­ eralization hierarchies and aggregation hierarchies all in one model, with some dynamics thrown in for good measure, bodes ill for the consistency of these theories. The first goal of the research reported on is to integrate the static structures which these models propose in one coherent, axiomatic framework. It will be shown in chapter 7 that the theory presented here provides the needed conceptual foundations for these models. A second aim is to provide a possible worlds framework onto which to graft theories of the dynamics of the UoD. The third aim is to provide clear concepts which can aid the database model designer in his or her thinking about the UoD. In this report we concentrate on the first goal only, leav­ ing the formulation of theories of domain dynamics and the application to system development as research goals for the near future

Formalizing Constructive Analysis: A comparison of minimal systems and a study of uniqueness principles.

Αυτή η διατριβή εξετάζει ορισμένες πλευρές της τυποποίησης και της αξιωματικοποίησης της κατασκευαστικής ανάλυσης. Η έρευνα στους κλάδους της κατασκευαστικής ανάλυσης που αντιστοιχούν στις διάφορες εκδοχές κατασκευαστικότητας διεξάγεται σε μια πλειάδα τυπικών ή όχι συστημάτων, των οποίων οι σχέσεις είναι ασαφείς. Αυτό το πρόβλημα αποβαίνει κρίσιμο για την ανάπτυξη της σχετικά νέας περιοχής των κατασκευαστικών ανάστροφων μαθηματικών. Η εργασία αυτή συμβάλλει σε μια πιο καθαρή εικόνα. Το Μέρος 1 περιέχει μία ακριβή σύγκριση των δύο ευρύτερα χρησιμοποιούμενων συστημάτων που τυποποιούν τον κοινό πυρήνα της κατασκευαστικής, της ενορατικής, της αναδρομικής και της κλασικής ανάλυσης, των Μ και EL, των Kleene και Troelstra, αντιστοίχως. Αποδεικνύεται ότι το EL είναι ασθενέστερο από το M και ότι η διαφορά τους αποτυπώνεται από μια αρχή η οποία εγγυάται την ύπαρξη χαρακτηριστικής συνάρτησης για κάθε αποκρίσιμο κατηγόρημα φυσικών αριθμών. Με παρόμοια επιχειρήματα προκύπτουν συγκρίσεις για τα περισσότερα από τα χρησιμοποιούμενα ελαχιστικά συστήματα. Στην κατασκευαστική ανάλυση χρησιμοποιούνται διάφορες αρχές επιλογής, συνέχειας και άλλες. Στο Μέρος 2, μελετώνται σχέσεις μεταξύ πολλών από αυτές, στις εκδοχές τους με μία συνθήκη μοναδικότητας, ένα χαρακτηριστικό από το οποίο απορρέουν ενδιαφέρουσες ιδιότητες, καθώς και σχέσεις μεταξύ αυτών των αρχών και μη κατασκευαστικών λογικών αρχών, στο πνεύμα των ανάστροφων μαθηματικών.This dissertation investigates certain aspects of the formalization and axiomatization of constructive analysis. The research in the branches of constructive analysis corresponding to the various forms of constructivism is carried out in a multitude of formal or informal systems, whose relations are unclear. This problem becomes quite crucial for the development of the relatively new field of constructive reverse mathematics. This work contributes to a clearer picture. Part 1 contains a precise comparison of the two most widely used systems which formalize the common core of constructive, intuitionistic, recursive and classical analysis, namely Kleene's M and Troelstra's EL. It is shown that EL is weaker than M and that their difference is captured by a function existence principle asserting that every decidable predicate of natural numbers has a characteristic function. Applying similar arguments, comparisons of most of the used minimal systems are obtained. In constructive analysis, various forms of choice principles, continuity principles and many others are used. Part 2 studies relations between many of them, in their versions having a uniqueness condition, a feature from which interesting properties follow, as well as relations between these principles and non-constructive logical principles, in the spirit of reverse mathematics

Goal-directed proof theory

This report is the draft of a book about goal directed proof theoretical formulations of non-classical logics. It evolved from a response to the existence of two camps in the applied logic (computer science/artificial intelligence) community. There are those members who believe that the new non-classical logics are the most important ones for applications and that classical logic itself is now no longer the main workhorse of applied logic, and there are those who maintain that classical logic is the only logic worth considering and that within classical logic the Horn clause fragment is the most important one. The book presents a uniform Prolog-like formulation of the landscape of classical and non-classical logics, done in such away that the distinctions and movements from one logic to another seem simple and natural; and within it classical logic becomes just one among many. This should please the non-classical logic camp. It will also please the classical logic camp since the goal directed formulation makes it all look like an algorithmic extension of Logic Programming. The approach also seems to provide very good compuational complexity bounds across its landscape

An algebraic study of residuated ordered monoids and logics without exchange and contraction.

Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1998.Please refer to the thesis for the abstract