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Nonfirstorderizability
In formal logic, nonfirstorderizability is the inability of a natural-language statement to be adequately captured by a formula of first-order logic. Specifically, a statement is nonfirstorderizable if there is no formula of first-order logic which is true in a model if and only if the statement holds in that model. Nonfirstorderizable statements are sometimes presented as evidence that first-order logic is not adequate to capture the nuances of meaning in natural language. The term was coined by George Boolos in his paper "To Be is to Be a Value of a Variable (or to Be Some Values of Some Variables)". Reprinted in Quine argued that such sentences call for second-order symbolization, which can be interpreted as plural quantification over the same domain as first-order quantifiers use, without postulation of distinct "second-order objects" (properties, sets, etc.). Examples Geach-Kaplan sentence A standard example is the '' Geach– Kaplan sentence'': "Some critics admire only ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Boolos
George Stephen Boolos (; 4 September 1940 – 27 May 1996) was an American philosopher and a mathematical logician who taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Life Boolos is of Greek-Jewish descent. He graduated with an A.B. in mathematics from Princeton University after completing a senior thesis, titled "A simple proof of Gödel's first incompleteness theorem", under the supervision of Raymond Smullyan. Oxford University awarded him the B.Phil. in 1963. In 1966, he obtained the first PhD in philosophy ever awarded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, under the direction of Hilary Putnam. After teaching three years at Columbia University, he returned to MIT in 1969, where he spent the rest of his career. A charismatic speaker well known for his clarity and wit, he once delivered a lecture (1994b) giving an account of Gödel's second incompleteness theorem, employing only words of one syllable. At the end of his viva, Hilary Putnam asked him, "And ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reification (linguistics)
Reification in natural language processing refers to where a natural language statement is transformed so actions and events in it become quantifiable variables. For example "John chased the duck furiously" can be transformed into something like :(Exists e)(chasing(e) & past_tense(e) & actor(e,John) & furiously(e) & patient(e,duck)). Another example would be "Sally said John is mean", which could be expressed as something like :(Exists u,v)(saying(u) & past_tense(u) & actor(u,Sally) & that(u,v) & is(v) & actor(v,John) & mean(v)). Such representations allow one to use the tools of classical first-order predicate calculus even for statements which, due to their use of tense, modality, adverbial constructions, propositional arguments (''e.g.'' "Sally said that X"), etc., would have seemed intractable. This is an advantage because predicate calculus is better understood and simpler than the more complex alternatives (higher-order logics, modal logics, temporal logics, etc.), and ther ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First-order Logic
First-order logic—also known as predicate logic, quantificational logic, and first-order predicate calculus—is a collection of formal systems used in mathematics, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science. First-order logic uses quantified variables over non-logical objects, and allows the use of sentences that contain variables, so that rather than propositions such as "Socrates is a man", one can have expressions in the form "there exists x such that x is Socrates and x is a man", where "there exists''"'' is a quantifier, while ''x'' is a variable. This distinguishes it from propositional logic, which does not use quantifiers or relations; in this sense, propositional logic is the foundation of first-order logic. A theory about a topic is usually a first-order logic together with a specified domain of discourse (over which the quantified variables range), finitely many functions from that domain to itself, finitely many predicates defined on that domain, and a set of ax ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Branching Quantifier
In logic a branching quantifier, also called a Henkin quantifier, finite partially ordered quantifier or even nonlinear quantifier, is a partial ordering :\langle Qx_1\dots Qx_n\rangle of quantifiers for ''Q'' ∈ . It is a special case of generalized quantifier. In classical logic, quantifier prefixes are linearly ordered such that the value of a variable ''ym'' bound by a quantifier ''Qm'' depends on the value of the variables : ''y''1, ..., ''y''''m''−1 bound by quantifiers : ''Qy''1, ..., ''Qy''''m''−1 preceding ''Qm''. In a logic with (finite) partially ordered quantification this is not in general the case. Branching quantification first appeared in a 1959 conference paper of Leon Henkin. Systems of partially ordered quantification are intermediate in strength between first-order logic and second-order logic. They are being used as a basis for Hintikka's and Gabriel Sandu's independence-friendly logic. Definition and properties The simplest Henkin quan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First-order Logic
First-order logic—also known as predicate logic, quantificational logic, and first-order predicate calculus—is a collection of formal systems used in mathematics, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science. First-order logic uses quantified variables over non-logical objects, and allows the use of sentences that contain variables, so that rather than propositions such as "Socrates is a man", one can have expressions in the form "there exists x such that x is Socrates and x is a man", where "there exists''"'' is a quantifier, while ''x'' is a variable. This distinguishes it from propositional logic, which does not use quantifiers or relations; in this sense, propositional logic is the foundation of first-order logic. A theory about a topic is usually a first-order logic together with a specified domain of discourse (over which the quantified variables range), finitely many functions from that domain to itself, finitely many predicates defined on that domain, and a set of ax ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plural Quantification
In mathematics and logic, plural quantification is the theory that an individual variable x may take on ''plural'', as well as singular, values. As well as substituting individual objects such as Alice, the number 1, the tallest building in London etc. for x, we may substitute both Alice and Bob, or all the numbers between 0 and 10, or all the buildings in London over 20 stories. The point of the theory is to give first-order logic the power of set theory, but without any " existential commitment" to such objects as sets. The classic expositions are Boolos 1984 and Lewis 1991. History The view is commonly associated with George Boolos, though it is older (see notably Simons 1982), and is related to the view of classes defended by John Stuart Mill and other nominalist philosophers. Mill argued that universals or "classes" are not a peculiar kind of thing, having an objective existence distinct from the individual objects that fall under them, but "is neither more nor less than ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Generalized Quantifier
In formal semantics, a generalized quantifier (GQ) is an expression that denotes a set of sets. This is the standard semantics assigned to quantified noun phrases. For example, the generalized quantifier ''every boy'' denotes the set of sets of which every boy is a member: \ This treatment of quantifiers has been essential in achieving a compositional semantics for sentences containing quantifiers. Type theory A version of type theory is often used to make the semantics of different kinds of expressions explicit. The standard construction defines the set of types recursively as follows: #''e'' and ''t'' are types. #If ''a'' and ''b'' are both types, then so is \langle a,b\rangle #Nothing is a type, except what can be constructed on the basis of lines 1 and 2 above. Given this definition, we have the simple types ''e'' and ''t'', but also a countable infinity of complex types, some of which include: \langle e,t\rangle;\qquad \langle t,t\rangle;\qquad \langle\langle e,t\rangle, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Definable Set
In mathematical logic, a definable set is an ''n''-ary relation on the domain of a structure whose elements satisfy some formula in the first-order language of that structure. A set can be defined with or without parameters, which are elements of the domain that can be referenced in the formula defining the relation. Definition Let \mathcal be a first-order language, \mathcal an \mathcal-structure with domain M, X a fixed subset of M, and m a natural number. Then: * A set A\subseteq M^m is ''definable in \mathcal with parameters from X'' if and only if there exists a formula \varphi _1,\ldots,x_m,y_1,\ldots,y_n/math> and elements b_1,\ldots,b_n\in X such that for all a_1,\ldots,a_m\in M, :(a_1,\ldots,a_m)\in A if and only if \mathcal\models\varphi _1,\ldots,a_m,b_1,\ldots,b_n/math> :The bracket notation here indicates the semantic evaluation of the free variables in the formula. * A set ''A is definable in \mathcal without parameters'' if it is definable in \mathcal with paramet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graph Connectivity
In mathematics and computer science, connectivity is one of the basic concepts of graph theory: it asks for the minimum number of elements (nodes or edges) that need to be removed to separate the remaining nodes into two or more isolated subgraphs. It is closely related to the theory of network flow problems. The connectivity of a graph is an important measure of its resilience as a network. Connected vertices and graphs In an undirected graph , two '' vertices'' and are called connected if contains a path from to . Otherwise, they are called disconnected. If the two vertices are additionally connected by a path of length , i.e. by a single edge, the vertices are called adjacent. A graph is said to be connected if every pair of vertices in the graph is connected. This means that there is a path between every pair of vertices. An undirected graph that is not connected is called disconnected. An undirected graph ''G'' is therefore disconnected if there exist two vertices i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Real Closed Field
In mathematics, a real closed field is a field ''F'' that has the same first-order properties as the field of real numbers. Some examples are the field of real numbers, the field of real algebraic numbers, and the field of hyperreal numbers. Definitions A real closed field is a field ''F'' in which any of the following equivalent conditions is true: #''F'' is elementarily equivalent to the real numbers. In other words, it has the same first-order properties as the reals: any sentence in the first-order language of fields is true in ''F'' if and only if it is true in the reals. #There is a total order on ''F'' making it an ordered field such that, in this ordering, every positive element of ''F'' has a square root in ''F'' and any polynomial of odd degree with coefficients in ''F'' has at least one root in ''F''. #''F'' is a formally real field such that every polynomial of odd degree with coefficients in ''F'' has at least one root in ''F'', and for every element ''a'' of ''F'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Archimedean Property
In abstract algebra and analysis, the Archimedean property, named after the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes of Syracuse, is a property held by some algebraic structures, such as ordered or normed groups, and fields. The property, typically construed, states that given two positive numbers ''x'' and ''y'', there is an integer ''n'' such that ''nx'' > ''y''. It also means that the set of natural numbers is not bounded above. Roughly speaking, it is the property of having no ''infinitely large'' or ''infinitely small'' elements. It was Otto Stolz who gave the axiom of Archimedes its name because it appears as Axiom V of Archimedes’ ''On the Sphere and Cylinder''. The notion arose from the theory of magnitudes of Ancient Greece; it still plays an important role in modern mathematics such as David Hilbert's axioms for geometry, and the theories of ordered groups, ordered fields, and local fields. An algebraic structure in which any two non-zero elements are ''comparabl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Identity (philosophy)
In philosophy, identity (from , "sameness") is the relation each thing bears only to itself. The notion of identity gives rise to List of unsolved problems in philosophy, many philosophical problems, including the identity of indiscernibles (if ''x'' and ''y'' share all their properties, are they one and the same thing?), and questions about change and personal identity over time (what has to be the case for a person ''x'' at one time and a person ''y'' at a later time to be one and the same person?). It is important to distinguish between ''qualitative identity'' and ''numerical identity''. For example, consider two children with identical bicycles engaged in a race while their mother is watching. The two children have the ''same'' bicycle in one sense (''qualitative identity'') and the ''same'' mother in another sense (''numerical identity''). This article is mainly concerned with ''numerical identity'', which is the stricter notion. The philosophical concept of identity is dist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
