Logic and Information

Keith Devlin

Cambridge University Press, Sep 29, 1995 - Computers - 307 pages

In this provocative and ground-breaking book, Keith Devlin argues that in order to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of intelligence and knowledge acquisition, we must broaden our concept of logic. Classical logic, beginning with the work of Aristotle, has developed into a powerful and rigorous mathematical theory with many applications in mathematics and computer science, but it has proved woefully inadequate in the search for artificial intelligence. The new kind of logic, also mathematically based, outlined by Professor Devlin is the culmination of collaborative research among some of the world's leading logicians, philosophers, linguists, psychologists, and computer scientists. It introduces the concepts of infon, a quantum of information, and situations, a dynamical generalization of sets, and is capable of handlng the issues involved in human communication, thought, speech, and machine information processing.

What people are saying

User Review -

Wonderful book.. Much, much simpler & clearer than Situations and Attitudes. I don't have time to write a thorough review but couldn't let this sit with a 1 star

Contents

• Information Situations and Infons: 14
• Situation Theory: 49
• Meaning and Constraints: 86
• Some Logical Issues: 111
• Mental States: 145
• Perception and Action: 187
• Situation Semantics: 216
• Topics in Situation Semantics: 252
• Retrospect and Prospect: 295

About the author

Born in England in 1947 and living in America since 1987, Keith Devlin has written more than 20 books and numerous research articles on various elements of mathematics. From 1983 to 1989, he wrote a column on for the Manchester (England) Guardian. The collected columns are published in All the Math That's Fit to Print (1994) and cover a wide range of topics from calculating travel expenses to calculating pi. His book Logic and Information (1991) is an introduction to situation theory and situation semantics for mathematicians. Co-author of the PBS Nova episode "A Mathematical Mystery Tour," he is also the author of Devlin's Angle, a column on the Mathematical Association of America's electronic journal. Devlin lives in California, where he is dean of the school of science at Saint Mary's College in Morgana. He is currently studying the use of mathematics to analyze communication and information flow in the workplace.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Logic and Information; Cambridge Tracts in Theoretica; Cambridge Tracts in Theoretical Computer Science; Logic and Information, Keith J. Devlin
• Author: Keith Devlin
• Edition: reprint, revised
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1995
• ISBN: 0521499712, 9780521499712
• Length: 307 pages
• Subjects: Computers / Databases / General; Computers / Information Theory; Computers / Intelligence (AI) & Semantics; Computers / Programming Languages / General; Computers / Reference; Mathematics / Reference