Logic of assertions

Logicians treat assertions as true, believed or merely hypothesized sentences. The reasoner who uses them, however, is the sole referee who can validate their truth, their aptness to describe an actual situation, their strength (as beliefs) or the relevance of their use in the current logical contex...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Sales Porta, Ton
Tipo de recurso: informe técnico
Fecha de publicación:1994
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/97093
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/97093
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Assertions
Resoning
Truth
Semantics
Probability
Logic
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Informàtica::Informàtica teòrica
Descripción
Sumario:Logicians treat assertions as true, believed or merely hypothesized sentences. The reasoner who uses them, however, is the sole referee who can validate their truth, their aptness to describe an actual situation, their strength (as beliefs) or the relevance of their use in the current logical context. Moreover, the reasoner actively counts on these factors, as part of the reasoning process itself, and should normally be capable, when asked to do so, to assign consistently relative strengths to the assertions used. The paper assumes, first, that assertions have --each-- an associated, measurable strength, and that, second, this strength has significant --and measurable-- effects on the truth of the sentences, the validity of the conclusion and the soundness of the reasoning. The concepts and formulas required for this are explored, and a semantics and proof theory for a sentential calculus of assertions are proposed as a natural extension of ordinary two-valued reasoning. The resulting theory, though reminiscent of Probability, is autonomous, self-contained and of a purely logical nature.