39,949 research outputs found
Suszko's Problem: Mixed Consequence and Compositionality
Suszko's problem is the problem of finding the minimal number of truth values
needed to semantically characterize a syntactic consequence relation. Suszko
proved that every Tarskian consequence relation can be characterized using only
two truth values. Malinowski showed that this number can equal three if some of
Tarski's structural constraints are relaxed. By so doing, Malinowski introduced
a case of so-called mixed consequence, allowing the notion of a designated
value to vary between the premises and the conclusions of an argument. In this
paper we give a more systematic perspective on Suszko's problem and on mixed
consequence. First, we prove general representation theorems relating
structural properties of a consequence relation to their semantic
interpretation, uncovering the semantic counterpart of substitution-invariance,
and establishing that (intersective) mixed consequence is fundamentally the
semantic counterpart of the structural property of monotonicity. We use those
to derive maximum-rank results proved recently in a different setting by French
and Ripley, as well as by Blasio, Marcos and Wansing, for logics with various
structural properties (reflexivity, transitivity, none, or both). We strengthen
these results into exact rank results for non-permeable logics (roughly, those
which distinguish the role of premises and conclusions). We discuss the
underlying notion of rank, and the associated reduction proposed independently
by Scott and Suszko. As emphasized by Suszko, that reduction fails to preserve
compositionality in general, meaning that the resulting semantics is no longer
truth-functional. We propose a modification of that notion of reduction,
allowing us to prove that over compact logics with what we call regular
connectives, rank results are maintained even if we request the preservation of
truth-functionality and additional semantic properties.Comment: Keywords: Suszko's thesis; truth value; logical consequence; mixed
consequence; compositionality; truth-functionality; many-valued logic;
algebraic logic; substructural logics; regular connective
Three dogmas of 'if'
In this paper I argue that a truth functional account of conditional statements âif A then Bâ not only is inadequate, but that it eliminates the very conditionality expressed by âifâ. Focusing only on the truth-values of the statements âAâ and âBâ and different combinations of these, one is bound to miss out on the conditional relation expressed between them. But this is not a flaw only of truth functionality and the material conditional. All approaches that try to treat conditionals as mere functions of their antecedents and consequents will end up in some sort of logical atomism where causal matters simply are reduced to the joint occurrence of A and B. What we need is a non-extensional approach to conditionals that can account for hypotheticality, potentiality, and dependency, none of which can be understood by looking to the antecedent or consequent per se
Unifying Functional Interpretations: Past and Future
This article surveys work done in the last six years on the unification of
various functional interpretations including G\"odel's dialectica
interpretation, its Diller-Nahm variant, Kreisel modified realizability,
Stein's family of functional interpretations, functional interpretations "with
truth", and bounded functional interpretations. Our goal in the present paper
is twofold: (1) to look back and single out the main lessons learnt so far, and
(2) to look forward and list several open questions and possible directions for
further research.Comment: 18 page
Offline and online data: on upgrading functional information to knowledge
This paper addresses the problem of upgrading functional information to knowledge. Functional information is defined as syntactically well-formed, meaningful and collectively opaque data. Its use in the formal epistemology of information theories is crucial to solve the debate on the veridical nature of information, and it represents the companion notion to standard strongly semantic information, defined as well-formed, meaningful and true data. The formal framework, on which the definitions are based, uses a contextual version of the verificationist principle of truth in order to connect functional to semantic information, avoiding Gettierization and decoupling from true informational contents. The upgrade operation from functional information uses the machinery of epistemic modalities in order to add data localization and accessibility as its main properties. We show in this way the conceptual worthiness of this notion for issues in contemporary epistemology debates, such as the explanation of knowledge process acquisition from information retrieval systems, and open data repositories
From Many-Valued Consequence to Many-Valued Connectives
Given a consequence relation in many-valued logic, what connectives can be
defined? For instance, does there always exist a conditional operator
internalizing the consequence relation, and which form should it take? In this
paper, we pose this question in a multi-premise multi-conclusion setting for
the class of so-called intersective mixed consequence relations, which extends
the class of Tarskian relations. Using computer-aided methods, we answer
extensively for 3-valued and 4-valued logics, focusing not only on conditional
operators, but on what we call Gentzen-regular connectives (including negation,
conjunction, and disjunction). For arbitrary N-valued logics, we state
necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of such connectives in a
multi-premise multi-conclusion setting. The results show that mixed consequence
relations admit all classical connectives, and among them pure consequence
relations are those that admit no other Gentzen-regular connectives.
Conditionals can also be found for a broader class of intersective mixed
consequence relations, but with the exclusion of order-theoretic consequence
relations.Comment: Updated version [corrections of an incorrect claim in first version;
two bib entries added
Functional programming languages for verification tools: experiences with ML and Haskell
We compare Haskell with ML as programming languages for verification tools, based on our experience developing TRUTH in Haskell and the Edinburgh Concurrency Workbench (CWB) in ML. We discuss not only technical language features but also the "worlds" of the languages, for example, the availability of tools and libraries
Towards a theory of ground-theoretic content
A lot of research has recently been done on the topic of ground, and in particular on the logic of ground. According to a broad consensus in that debate, ground is hyperintensional in the sense that even logically equivalent truths may differ with respect to what grounds them, and what they ground. This renders pressing the question of what we may take to be the ground-theoretic content of a true statement, i.e. that aspect of the statement's overall content to which ground is sensitive. I propose a novel answer to this question, namely that ground tracks how, rather than just by what, a statement is made true. I develop that answer in the form of a formal theory of ground-theoretic content and show how the resulting framework may be used to articulate plausible theories of ground, including in particular a popular account of the grounds of truth-functionally complex truths that has proved difficult to accommodate on alternative views of content
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