Exploring Logical Dynamics / Edition 74

by Johan van Benthem

Overview

This book is an exploration of current trends in logical theories of information flow across various fields, such as belief revision in computer science or dynamic semantics in linguistics. It provides one mathematical perspective encompassing all of these. This framework generates a new agenda of questions concerning dynamic inference and dynamic operators. The result is a mathematical theory of process models, simulations between these, and modal languages over them, which is developed in quite some detail. New results include theorems on expressive completeness, representation of styles of inference, and new kinds of decidable remodeling for standard logics. This theory is also confronted with practice in computer science, linguistics and philosophy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781575860589
Publisher:	Center for the Study of Language and Inf
Publication date:	06/01/1996
Series:	Studies in Logic, Language, and Information
Edition description:	74th ed.
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Johan van Benthem is University Professor of pure and applied logic at the University of Amsterdam, the Henry Waldgrave Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University, and the Weilun Visiting Professor of Humanities at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Cognitive actions; 2. Dynamification; 3. Technical tools; 4. Process simulation and definability; 5. Relational algebra of process operations; 6. Two-level static-dynamic architecture; 7. Dynamic styles of inference; 8. Decidable remodelling: arrow logic; 9. Modal foundations for predicate logic; 10. Computational process theories; 11. Imperative aspects of logic programs; 12. Understanding natural language; 13. Philosophical repercussions; Bibliography.

Editorial Reviews

'The book is beautifully written … This is an important book, and one which is bound to raise interest around logical dynamics among people that had not been previously exposed to the specialised literature of the field. Like a true Seurat painting, the contours of the picture which van Benthem gives are still fuzzy, as in a hazy morning: the agenda of dynamicists is still rich with unsolved problems, and the rich notes at the end of each chapter are there to remind researchers about this.' Computer Journal

From the Publisher