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AN EPISTEMIC LOGIC WITH QUANTIFICATION OVER NAMES
Author(s) -
Haas Andrew R.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
computational intelligence
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.353
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1467-8640
pISSN - 0824-7935
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8640.1995.tb00045.x
Subject(s) - soundness , completeness (order theory) , computer science , representation (politics) , first order logic , knowledge representation and reasoning , natural language processing , artificial intelligence , linguistics , epistemology , mathematics , philosophy , programming language , mathematical analysis , politics , political science , law
Sentential theories of belief hold that propositions (the things that agents believe and know) are sentences of a representation language. To analyze quantification into the scope of attitudes, these theories require a naming map a function that maps objects to their names in the representation language. Epistemic logics based on sentential theories usually assume a single naming map, which is built into the logic. I argue that to describe everyday knowledge, the user of the logic must be able to define new naming maps for particular problems. Since the range of a naming map is usually an infinite set of names, defining a map requires quantification over names. This paper describes an epistemic logic with quantification over names, presents a theorem‐proving algorithm based on translation to first‐order logic, and proves soundness and completeness. The first version of the logic suffers from the problem of logical omniscience; a second version avoids this problem, and soundness and completeness are proved for this version also.