30 research outputs found

    Kriesel and Wittgenstein

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    Georg Kreisel (15 September 1923 - 1 March 2015) was a formidable mathematical logician during a formative period when the subject was becoming a sophisticated field at the crossing of mathematics and logic. Both with his technical sophistication for his time and his dialectical engagement with mandates, aspirations and goals, he inspired wide-ranging investigation in the metamathematics of constructivity, proof theory and generalized recursion theory. Kreisel's mathematics and interactions with colleagues and students have been memorably described in Kreiseliana ([Odifreddi, 1996]). At a different level of interpersonal conceptual interaction, Kreisel during his life time had extended engagement with two celebrated logicians, the mathematical Kurt Gödel and the philosophical Ludwig Wittgenstein. About Gödel, with modern mathematical logic palpably emanating from his work, Kreisel has reflected and written over a wide mathematical landscape. About Wittgenstein on the other hand, with an early personal connection established Kreisel would return as if with an anxiety of influence to their ways of thinking about logic and mathematics, ever in a sort of dialectic interplay. In what follows we draw this out through his published essays—and one letter—both to elicit aspects of influence in his own terms and to set out a picture of Kreisel's evolving thinking about logic and mathematics in comparative relief.Accepted manuscrip

    Unknowable Truths: The Incompleteness Theorems and the Rise of Modernism

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    This thesis evaluates the function of the current history of mathematics methodologies and explores ways in which historiographical methodologies could be successfully implemented in the field. Traditional approaches to the history of mathematics often lack either an accurate portrayal of the social and cultural influences of the time, or they lack an effective usage of mathematics discussed. This paper applies a holistic methodology in a case study of Kurt Gödel’s influential work in logic during the Interwar period and the parallel rise of intellectual modernism. In doing so, the proofs for Gödel’s Completeness and Incompleteness theorems will be discussed as well as Gödel’s philosophical interests and influences of the time. To explore the intersection of these worlds, practices are borrowed from the fields of intellectual history and history of science and technology to analyze better the effects of society and culture on the mind of mathematicians like Gödel and their work

    What Socrates Began: An Examination of Intellect Vol. 1

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    Walter E. Russell Endowed Chair in Philosophy and Education Symposium 1988https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/facbooks/1237/thumbnail.jp

    On the foundations of paraconsistent logic programming

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    Orientador: Marcelo Esteban ConiglioDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias HumanasResumo: A Programação Lógica nasce da interação entre a Lógica e os fundamentos da Ciência da Computação: teorias de primeira ordem podem ser interpretadas como programas de computador. A Programação Lógica tem sido extensamente utilizada em ramos da Inteligência Artificial tais como Representação do Conhecimento e Raciocínio de Senso Comum. Esta aproximação deu origem a uma extensa pesquisa com a intenção de definir sistemas de Programação Lógica paraconsistentes, isto é, sistemas nos quais seja possível manipular informação contraditória. Porém, todas as abordagens existentes carecem de uma fundamentação lógica claramente definida, como a encontrada na programação lógica clássica. A questão básica é saber quais são as lógicas paraconsistentes subjacentes a estas abordagens. A presente dissertação tem como objetivo estabelecer uma fundamentação lógica e conceitual clara e sólida para o desenvolvimento de sistemas bem fundados de Programação Lógica Paraconsistente. Nesse sentido, este trabalho pode ser considerado como a primeira (e bem sucedida) etapa de um ambicioso programa de pesquisa. Uma das teses principais da presente dissertação é que as Lógicas da Inconsistência Formal (LFI's), que abrangem uma enorme família de lógicas paraconsistentes, proporcionam tal base lógica. Como primeiro passo rumo à definição de uma programação lógica genuinamente paraconsistente, demonstramos nesta dissertação uma versão simplificada do Teorema de Herbrand para uma LFI de primeira ordem. Tal teorema garante a existência, em princípio, de métodos de dedução automática para as lógicas (quantificadas) em que o teorema vale. Um pré-requisito fundamental para a definição da programação lógica é justamente a existência de métodos de dedução automática. Adicionalmente, para a demonstração do Teorema de Herbrand, são formuladas aqui duas LFI's quantificadas através de sequentes, e para uma delas demonstramos o teorema da eliminação do corte. Apresentamos também, como requisito indispensável para os resultados acima mencionados, uma nova prova de correção e completude para LFI's quantificadas na qual mostramos a necessidade de exigir o Lema da Substituição para a sua semânticaAbstract: Logic Programming arises from the interaction between Logic and the Foundations of Computer Science: first-order theories can be seen as computer programs. Logic Programming have been broadly used in some branches of Artificial Intelligence such as Knowledge Representation and Commonsense Reasoning. From this, a wide research activity has been developed in order to define paraconsistent Logic Programming systems, that is, systems in which it is possible to deal with contradictory information. However, no such existing approaches has a clear logical basis. The basic question is to know what are the paraconsistent logics underlying such approaches. The present dissertation aims to establish a clear and solid conceptual and logical basis for developing well-founded systems of Paraconsistent Logic Programming. In that sense, this text can be considered as the first (and successful) stage of an ambitious research programme. One of the main thesis of the present dissertation is that the Logics of Formal Inconsistency (LFI's), which encompasses a broad family of paraconsistent logics, provide such a logical basis. As a first step towards the definition of genuine paraconsistent logic programming we shown, in this dissertation, a simplified version of the Herbrand Theorem for a first-order LFI. Such theorem guarantees the existence, in principle, of automated deduction methods for the (quantified) logics in which the theorem holds, a fundamental prerequisite for the definition of logic programming over such logics. Additionally, in order to prove the Herbrand Theorem we introduce sequent calculi for two quantified LFI's, and cut-elimination is proved for one of the systems. We also present, as an indispensable requisite for the above mentioned results, a new proof of soundness and completeness for first-order LFI's in which we show the necessity of requiring the Substitution Lemma for the respective semanticsMestradoFilosofiaMestre em Filosofi

    Relations between logic and mathematics in the work of Benjamin and Charles S. Peirce.

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    Charles Peirce (1839-1914) was one of the most important logicians of the nineteenth century. This thesis traces the development of his algebraic logic from his early papers, with especial attention paid to the mathematical aspects. There are three main sources to consider. 1) Benjamin Peirce (1809-1880), Charles's father and also a leading American mathematician of his day, was an inspiration. His memoir Linear Associative Algebra (1870) is summarised and for the first time the algebraic structures behind its 169 algebras are analysed in depth. 2) Peirce's early papers on algebraic logic from the late 1860s were largely an attempt to expand and adapt George Boole's calculus, using a part/whole theory of classes and algebraic analogies concerning symbols, operations and equations to produce a method of deducing consequences from premises. 3) One of Peirce's main achievements was his work on the theory of relations, following in the pioneering footsteps of Augustus De Morgan. By linking the theory of relations to his post-Boolean algebraic logic, he solved many of the limitations that beset Boole's calculus. Peirce's seminal paper `Description of a Notation for the Logic of Relatives' (1870) is analysed in detail, with a new interpretation suggested for his mysterious process of logical differentiation. Charles Peirce's later work up to the mid 1880s is then surveyed, both for its extended algebraic character and for its novel theory of quantification. The contributions of two of his students at the Johns Hopkins University, Oscar Mitchell and Christine Ladd-Franklin are traced, specifically with an analysis of their problem solving methods. The work of Peirce's successor Ernst Schröder is also reviewed, contrasting the differences and similarities between their logics. During the 1890s and later, Charles Peirce turned to a diagrammatic representation and extension of his algebraic logic. The basic concepts of this topological twist are introduced. Although Peirce's work in logic has been studied by previous scholars, this thesis stresses to a new extent the mathematical aspects of his logic - in particular the algebraic background and methods, not only of Peirce but also of several of his contemporaries

    Topics in Programming Languages, a Philosophical Analysis through the case of Prolog

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    [EN]Programming languages seldom find proper anchorage in philosophy of logic, language and science. is more, philosophy of language seems to be restricted to natural languages and linguistics, and even philosophy of logic is rarely framed into programming languages topics. The logic programming paradigm and Prolog are, thus, the most adequate paradigm and programming language to work on this subject, combining natural language processing and linguistics, logic programming and constriction methodology on both algorithms and procedures, on an overall philosophizing declarative status. Not only this, but the dimension of the Fifth Generation Computer system related to strong Al wherein Prolog took a major role. and its historical frame in the very crucial dialectic between procedural and declarative paradigms, structuralist and empiricist biases, serves, in exemplar form, to treat straight ahead philosophy of logic, language and science in the contemporaneous age as well. In recounting Prolog's philosophical, mechanical and algorithmic harbingers, the opportunity is open to various routes. We herein shall exemplify some: - the mechanical-computational background explored by Pascal, Leibniz, Boole, Jacquard, Babbage, Konrad Zuse, until reaching to the ACE (Alan Turing) and EDVAC (von Neumann), offering the backbone in computer architecture, and the work of Turing, Church, Gödel, Kleene, von Neumann, Shannon, and others on computability, in parallel lines, throughly studied in detail, permit us to interpret ahead the evolving realm of programming languages. The proper line from lambda-calculus, to the Algol-family, the declarative and procedural split with the C language and Prolog, and the ensuing branching and programming languages explosion and further delimitation, are thereupon inspected as to relate them with the proper syntax, semantics and philosophical élan of logic programming and Prolog
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