Logic and InformationIn 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. |
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 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
abstract objects abstract situations anchor appropriate argument roles Barwise basic behavior belief classical logic cognitive agents compound infon concerned constraint cookie course CSLI definition denote described situation desire direction of fit discussion entities equivalence classes equivalence relation event example external content fact first-order logic framework instance intentional mental intentionality network involves issue item of information Jon Barwise Keith Devlin kind linguistic listener logic Mary mathematician meaning-in-use natural numbers notion number system object-type of-type ontology Oracler Ovett parameter particular phrase predicate logic present propositional content quantifiers race rational numbers real numbers refer relation relevant resource situation s₁ scheme of individuation Sebastian Coe Section sentence simply situation semantics situation theory situation-type speaker Steve Cram structure temporal locations theorist's theory of information u₁ uniformities utterance situation visual content visual experience word