6,902 research outputs found
Probabilities on Sentences in an Expressive Logic
Automated reasoning about uncertain knowledge has many applications. One
difficulty when developing such systems is the lack of a completely
satisfactory integration of logic and probability. We address this problem
directly. Expressive languages like higher-order logic are ideally suited for
representing and reasoning about structured knowledge. Uncertain knowledge can
be modeled by using graded probabilities rather than binary truth-values. The
main technical problem studied in this paper is the following: Given a set of
sentences, each having some probability of being true, what probability should
be ascribed to other (query) sentences? A natural wish-list, among others, is
that the probability distribution (i) is consistent with the knowledge base,
(ii) allows for a consistent inference procedure and in particular (iii)
reduces to deductive logic in the limit of probabilities being 0 and 1, (iv)
allows (Bayesian) inductive reasoning and (v) learning in the limit and in
particular (vi) allows confirmation of universally quantified
hypotheses/sentences. We translate this wish-list into technical requirements
for a prior probability and show that probabilities satisfying all our criteria
exist. We also give explicit constructions and several general
characterizations of probabilities that satisfy some or all of the criteria and
various (counter) examples. We also derive necessary and sufficient conditions
for extending beliefs about finitely many sentences to suitable probabilities
over all sentences, and in particular least dogmatic or least biased ones. We
conclude with a brief outlook on how the developed theory might be used and
approximated in autonomous reasoning agents. Our theory is a step towards a
globally consistent and empirically satisfactory unification of probability and
logic.Comment: 52 LaTeX pages, 64 definiton/theorems/etc, presented at conference
Progic 2011 in New Yor
Semantics, Modelling, and the Problem of Representation of Meaning -- a Brief Survey of Recent Literature
Over the past 50 years many have debated what representation should be used
to capture the meaning of natural language utterances. Recently new needs of
such representations have been raised in research. Here I survey some of the
interesting representations suggested to answer for these new needs.Comment: 15 pages, no figure
Randomisation and Derandomisation in Descriptive Complexity Theory
We study probabilistic complexity classes and questions of derandomisation
from a logical point of view. For each logic L we introduce a new logic BPL,
bounded error probabilistic L, which is defined from L in a similar way as the
complexity class BPP, bounded error probabilistic polynomial time, is defined
from PTIME. Our main focus lies on questions of derandomisation, and we prove
that there is a query which is definable in BPFO, the probabilistic version of
first-order logic, but not in Cinf, finite variable infinitary logic with
counting. This implies that many of the standard logics of finite model theory,
like transitive closure logic and fixed-point logic, both with and without
counting, cannot be derandomised. Similarly, we present a query on ordered
structures which is definable in BPFO but not in monadic second-order logic,
and a query on additive structures which is definable in BPFO but not in FO.
The latter of these queries shows that certain uniform variants of AC0
(bounded-depth polynomial sized circuits) cannot be derandomised. These results
are in contrast to the general belief that most standard complexity classes can
be derandomised. Finally, we note that BPIFP+C, the probabilistic version of
fixed-point logic with counting, captures the complexity class BPP, even on
unordered structures
If P, Then P!
The Identity principle says that conditionals with the form 'If p, then p' are logical truths. Identity is overwhelmingly plausible, and has rarely been explicitly challenged. But a wide range of conditionals nonetheless invalidate it. I explain the problem, and argue that the culprit is the principle known as Import-Export, which we must thus reject. I then explore how we can reject Import-Export in a way that still makes sense of the intuitions that support it, arguing that the differences between indicative and subjunctive conditionals play a key role in solving this puzzle
Stochastic Relational Presheaves and Dynamic Logic for Contextuality
Presheaf models provide a formulation of labelled transition systems that is
useful for, among other things, modelling concurrent computation. This paper
aims to extend such models further to represent stochastic dynamics such as
shown in quantum systems. After reviewing what presheaf models represent and
what certain operations on them mean in terms of notions such as internal and
external choices, composition of systems, and so on, I will show how to extend
those models and ideas by combining them with ideas from other
category-theoretic approaches to relational models and to stochastic processes.
It turns out that my extension yields a transitional formulation of
sheaf-theoretic structures that Abramsky and Brandenburger proposed to
characterize non-locality and contextuality. An alternative characterization of
contextuality will then be given in terms of a dynamic modal logic of the
models I put forward.Comment: In Proceedings QPL 2014, arXiv:1412.810
Real-time and Probabilistic Temporal Logics: An Overview
Over the last two decades, there has been an extensive study on logical
formalisms for specifying and verifying real-time systems. Temporal logics have
been an important research subject within this direction. Although numerous
logics have been introduced for the formal specification of real-time and
complex systems, an up to date comprehensive analysis of these logics does not
exist in the literature. In this paper we analyse real-time and probabilistic
temporal logics which have been widely used in this field. We extrapolate the
notions of decidability, axiomatizability, expressiveness, model checking, etc.
for each logic analysed. We also provide a comparison of features of the
temporal logics discussed
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