625 research outputs found
Almost structural completeness; an algebraic approach
A deductive system is structurally complete if its admissible inference rules
are derivable. For several important systems, like modal logic S5, failure of
structural completeness is caused only by the underivability of passive rules,
i.e. rules that can not be applied to theorems of the system. Neglecting
passive rules leads to the notion of almost structural completeness, that
means, derivablity of admissible non-passive rules. Almost structural
completeness for quasivarieties and varieties of general algebras is
investigated here by purely algebraic means. The results apply to all
algebraizable deductive systems.
Firstly, various characterizations of almost structurally complete
quasivarieties are presented. Two of them are general: expressed with finitely
presented algebras, and with subdirectly irreducible algebras. One is
restricted to quasivarieties with finite model property and equationally
definable principal relative congruences, where the condition is verifiable on
finite subdirectly irreducible algebras.
Secondly, examples of almost structurally complete varieties are provided
Particular emphasis is put on varieties of closure algebras, that are known to
constitute adequate semantics for normal extensions of S4 modal logic. A
certain infinite family of such almost structurally complete, but not
structurally complete, varieties is constructed. Every variety from this family
has a finitely presented unifiable algebra which does not embed into any free
algebra for this variety. Hence unification in it is not unitary. This shows
that almost structural completeness is strictly weaker than projective
unification for varieties of closure algebras
Bisimulation and expressivity for conditional belief, degrees of belief, and safe belief
Plausibility models are Kripke models that agents use to reason about
knowledge and belief, both of themselves and of each other. Such models are
used to interpret the notions of conditional belief, degrees of belief, and
safe belief. The logic of conditional belief contains that modality and also
the knowledge modality, and similarly for the logic of degrees of belief and
the logic of safe belief. With respect to these logics, plausibility models may
contain too much information. A proper notion of bisimulation is required that
characterises them. We define that notion of bisimulation and prove the
required characterisations: on the class of image-finite and preimage-finite
models (with respect to the plausibility relation), two pointed Kripke models
are modally equivalent in either of the three logics, if and only if they are
bisimilar. As a result, the information content of such a model can be
similarly expressed in the logic of conditional belief, or the logic of degrees
of belief, or that of safe belief. This, we found a surprising result. Still,
that does not mean that the logics are equally expressive: the logics of
conditional and degrees of belief are incomparable, the logics of degrees of
belief and safe belief are incomparable, while the logic of safe belief is more
expressive than the logic of conditional belief. In view of the result on
bisimulation characterisation, this is an equally surprising result. We hope
our insights may contribute to the growing community of formal epistemology and
on the relation between qualitative and quantitative modelling
A Step-indexed Semantics of Imperative Objects
Step-indexed semantic interpretations of types were proposed as an
alternative to purely syntactic proofs of type safety using subject reduction.
The types are interpreted as sets of values indexed by the number of
computation steps for which these values are guaranteed to behave like proper
elements of the type. Building on work by Ahmed, Appel and others, we introduce
a step-indexed semantics for the imperative object calculus of Abadi and
Cardelli. Providing a semantic account of this calculus using more
`traditional', domain-theoretic approaches has proved challenging due to the
combination of dynamically allocated objects, higher-order store, and an
expressive type system. Here we show that, using step-indexing, one can
interpret a rich type discipline with object types, subtyping, recursive and
bounded quantified types in the presence of state
Structuring co-constructive logic for proofs and refutations
This paper considers a topos-theoretic structure for the interpretation of co-constructive logic for proofs and refutations following. It is notoriously tricky to define a proof-theoretic semantics for logics that adequately represent constructivity over proofs and refutations. By developing abstractions of elementary topoi, we consider an elementary topos as structure for proofs, and complement topos as structure for refutation. In doing so, it is possible to consider a dialogue structure between these topoi, and also control their relation such that classical logic (interpreted in a Boolean topos) is simulated where proofs and refutations are conclusive
Constructing a Categorical Framework of Metamathematical Comparison Between Deductive Systems of Logic
The topic of this paper in a broad phrase is “proof theory . It tries to theorize the general
notion of “proving something using rigorous definitions, inspired by previous less general
theories. The purpose for being this general is to eventually establish a rigorous framework
that can bridge the gap when interrelating different logical systems, particularly ones
that have not been as well defined rigorously, such as sequent calculus. Even as far as
semantics go on more formally defined logic such as classic propositional logic, concepts
like “completeness and “soundness between the “semantic and the “deductive system
is too arbitrarily defined on the specific system that is applied to for it to carry as an
adequate definition. What we shall do then is come up with an adequate definition for
a characterization of every logic that one has worked with, and show what can be done
with it for a few basic logical systems that include classic propositional logic, intuitionistic
propositional logic and intuitionistic sequent calculus. To make this definition work with
eloquence, we go the category theory route of constructing a category with objects that
correspond to collections of logical formulae and arrows that correspond to deductions
from one such collection to another
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