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Truth-value Semantics
In formal semantics, truth-value semantics is an alternative to Tarskian semantics. It has been primarily championed by Ruth Barcan Marcus, H. Leblanc, and J. Michael Dunn and Nuel Belnap. It is also called the ''substitution interpretation'' (of the quantifiers) or substitutional quantification. The idea of these semantics is that a universal (respectively, existential) quantifier may be read as a conjunction (respectively, disjunction) of formulas in which constants replace the variables in the scope of the quantifier. For example, ∀''xPx'' may be read (''Pa'' & ''Pb'' & ''Pc'' &...) where ''a'', ''b'', ''c'' are individual constants replacing all occurrences of ''x'' in ''Px''. The main difference between truth-value semantics and the standard semantics for predicate logic is that there are no domains for truth-value semantics. Only the truth clauses for atomic and for quantificational formulas differ from those of the standard semantics. Whereas in standard semantic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Formal Semantics (logic)
In logic, the semantics of logic or formal semantics is the study of the semantics, or interpretations, of formal and (idealizations of) natural languages usually trying to capture the pre-theoretic notion of entailment. Overview The truth conditions of various sentences we may encounter in arguments will depend upon their meaning, and so logicians cannot completely avoid the need to provide some treatment of the meaning of these sentences. The semantics of logic refers to the approaches that logicians have introduced to understand and determine that part of meaning in which they are interested; the logician traditionally is not interested in the sentence as uttered but in the proposition, an idealised sentence suitable for logical manipulation. Until the advent of modern logic, Aristotle's ''Organon'', especially '' De Interpretatione'', provided the basis for understanding the significance of logic. The introduction of quantification, needed to solve the problem of multi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atomic Formula
In mathematical logic, an atomic formula (also known as an atom or a prime formula) is a formula with no deeper propositional structure, that is, a formula that contains no logical connectives or equivalently a formula that has no strict subformulas. Atoms are thus the simplest well-formed formulas of the logic. Compound formulas are formed by combining the atomic formulas using the logical connectives. The precise form of atomic formulas depends on the logic under consideration; for propositional logic, for example, a propositional variable is often more briefly referred to as an "atomic formula", but, more precisely, a propositional variable is not an atomic formula but a formal expression that denotes an atomic formula. For predicate logic, the atoms are predicate symbols together with their arguments, each argument being a term. In model theory, atomic formulas are merely strings of symbols with a given signature, which may or may not be satisfiable with respect to a given mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Truth-conditional Semantics
Truth-conditional semantics is an approach to semantics of natural language that sees meaning (or at least the meaning of assertions) as being the same as, or reducible to, their truth conditions. This approach to semantics is principally associated with Donald Davidson, and attempts to carry out for the semantics of natural language what Tarski's semantic theory of truth achieves for the semantics of logic. Truth-conditional theories of semantics attempt to define the meaning of a given proposition by explaining when the sentence is true. So, for example, because 'snow is white' is true if and only if snow is white, the meaning of 'snow is white' is snow is white. History The first truth-conditional semantics was developed by Donald Davidson in '' Truth and Meaning'' (1967). It applied Tarski's semantic theory of truth to a problem it was not intended to solve, that of giving the meaning of a sentence. Criticism Refutation from necessary truths Scott Soames has harshly critici ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quasi-quotation
Quasi-quotation or Quine quotation is a linguistic device in formal languages that facilitates rigorous and terse formulation of general rules about linguistic expressions while properly observing the use–mention distinction. It was introduced by the philosopher and logician Willard Van Orman Quine in his book ''Mathematical Logic'', originally published in 1940. Put simply, quasi-quotation enables one to introduce symbols that ''stand for'' a linguistic expression in a given instance and are ''used as'' that linguistic expression in a different instance. For example, one can use quasi-quotation to illustrate an instance of substitutional quantification, like the following: ::"Snow is white" is true if and only if snow is white. ::Therefore, there is some sequence of symbols that makes the following sentence true when every instance of φ is replaced by that sequence of symbols: "φ" is true if and only if φ. Quasi-quotation is used to indicate (usually in more comple ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proof-theoretic Semantics
Proof-theoretic semantics is an approach to the semantics of logic that attempts to locate the meaning of propositions and logical connectives not in terms of interpretation Interpretation may refer to: Culture * Aesthetic interpretation, an explanation of the meaning of a work of art * Allegorical interpretation, an approach that assumes a text should not be interpreted literally * Dramatic Interpretation, an event ...s, as in Tarskian approaches to semantics, but in the role that the proposition or logical connective plays within the system of inference. Overview Gerhard Gentzen is the founder of proof-theoretic semantics, providing the formal basis for it in his account of cut-elimination for the sequent calculus, and some provocative philosophical remarks about locating the meaning of logical connectives in their Natural_deduction#Introduction_and_elimination, introduction rules within natural deduction. The history of proof-theoretic semantics since then has been devo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kripke Semantics
Kripke semantics (also known as relational semantics or frame semantics, and often confused with possible world semantics) is a formal semantics for non-classical logic systems created in the late 1950s and early 1960s by Saul Kripke and André Joyal. It was first conceived for modal logics, and later adapted to intuitionistic logic and other non-classical systems. The development of Kripke semantics was a breakthrough in the theory of non-classical logics, because the model theory of such logics was almost non-existent before Kripke (algebraic semantics existed, but were considered 'syntax in disguise'). Semantics of modal logic The language of propositional modal logic consists of a countable set, countably infinite set of propositional variables, a set of truth-functional Logical connective, connectives (in this article \to and \neg), and the modal operator \Box ("necessarily"). The modal operator \Diamond ("possibly") is (classically) the duality (mathematics)#Duality in log ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Game Semantics
Game semantics (german: dialogische Logik, translated as ''dialogical logic'') is an approach to formal semantics that grounds the concepts of truth or validity on game-theoretic concepts, such as the existence of a winning strategy for a player, somewhat resembling Socratic dialogues or medieval theory of Obligationes. History In the late 1950s Paul Lorenzen was the first to introduce a game semantics for logic, and it was further developed by Kuno Lorenz. At almost the same time as Lorenzen, Jaakko Hintikka developed a model-theoretical approach known in the literature as ''GTS'' (game-theoretical semantics). Since then, a number of different game semantics have been studied in logic. Shahid Rahman (Lille) and collaborators developed dialogical logic into a general framework for the study of logical and philosophical issues related to logical pluralism. Beginning 1994 this triggered a kind of renaissance with lasting consequences. This new philosophical impulse experienced a pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Free Logic
A free logic is a logic with fewer existential presuppositions than classical logic. Free logics may allow for terms that do not denote any object. Free logics may also allow models that have an empty domain. A free logic with the latter property is an inclusive logic. Explanation In classical logic there are theorems that clearly presuppose that there is something in the domain of discourse. Consider the following classically valid theorems. :1. \forall xA \Rightarrow \exists xA :2. \forall x \forall rA(x) \Rightarrow \forall rA(r) :3. \forall rA(r) \Rightarrow \exists xA(x) A valid scheme in the theory of equality which exhibits the same feature is :4. \forall x(Fx \rightarrow Gx) \land \exists xFx \rightarrow \exists x(Fx \land Gx) Informally, if F is '=y', G is 'is Pegasus', and we substitute 'Pegasus' for y, then (4) appears to allow us to infer from 'everything identical with Pegasus is Pegasus' that something is identical with Pegasus. The problem comes from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Logical Consequence
Logical consequence (also entailment) is a fundamental concept in logic, which describes the relationship between statements that hold true when one statement logically ''follows from'' one or more statements. A valid logical argument is one in which the conclusion is entailed by the premises, because the conclusion is the consequence of the premises. The philosophical analysis of logical consequence involves the questions: In what sense does a conclusion follow from its premises? and What does it mean for a conclusion to be a consequence of premises?Beall, JC and Restall, Greg, Logical Consequence' The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2009 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.). All of philosophical logic is meant to provide accounts of the nature of logical consequence and the nature of logical truth. Logical consequence is necessary and formal, by way of examples that explain with formal proof and models of interpretation. A sentence is said to be a logical conse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Compactness Theorem
In mathematical logic, the compactness theorem states that a set of first-order sentences has a model if and only if every finite subset of it has a model. This theorem is an important tool in model theory, as it provides a useful (but generally not effective) method for constructing models of any set of sentences that is finitely consistent. The compactness theorem for the propositional calculus is a consequence of Tychonoff's theorem (which says that the product of compact spaces is compact) applied to compact Stone spaces, hence the theorem's name. Likewise, it is analogous to the finite intersection property characterization of compactness in topological spaces: a collection of closed sets in a compact space has a non-empty intersection if every finite subcollection has a non-empty intersection. The compactness theorem is one of the two key properties, along with the downward Löwenheim–Skolem theorem, that is used in Lindström's theorem to characterize first-order logic. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Completeness (logic)
In mathematical logic and metalogic, a formal system is called complete with respect to a particular property if every formula having the property can be derived using that system, i.e. is one of its theorems; otherwise the system is said to be incomplete. The term "complete" is also used without qualification, with differing meanings depending on the context, mostly referring to the property of semantical validity. Intuitively, a system is called complete in this particular sense, if it can derive every formula that is true. Other properties related to completeness The property converse to completeness is called soundness: a system is sound with respect to a property (mostly semantical validity) if each of its theorems has that property. Forms of completeness Expressive completeness A formal language is expressively complete if it can express the subject matter for which it is intended. Functional completeness A set of logical connectives associated with a formal system ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Truth Clause
Truth is the property of being in accord with fact or reality.Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionarytruth 2005 In everyday language, truth is typically ascribed to things that aim to represent reality or otherwise correspond to it, such as beliefs, propositions, and declarative sentences. Truth is usually held to be the opposite of falsehood. The concept of truth is discussed and debated in various contexts, including philosophy, art, theology, and science. Most human activities depend upon the concept, where its nature as a concept is assumed rather than being a subject of discussion; these include most of the sciences, law, journalism, and everyday life. Some philosophers view the concept of truth as basic, and unable to be explained in any terms that are more easily understood than the concept of truth itself. Most commonly, truth is viewed as the correspondence of language or thought to a mind-independent world. This is called the correspondence theory of truth. Vario ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
