Using Predicate Logic: Representation of Simple Facts in Logic
Using Predicate Logic: Representation of Simple Facts in Logic
knowledge itself. For example, computer programs, directions, and recipes; these indicate
specific use or implementation;
Moreover, Knowledge encoded in some procedures, small programs that know how to do
specific things, how to proceed.
Advantages:
Heuristic or domain-specific knowledge can represent.
Moreover, Extended logical inferences, such as default reasoning facilitated.
Also, Side effects of actions may model. Some rules may become false in time.
Keeping track of this in large systems may be tricky.
Disadvantages:
Completeness — not all cases may represent.
Consistency — not all deductions may be correct. e.g If we know that Fred is a
bird we might deduce that Fred can fly. Later we might discover that Fred is an
emu.
Modularity sacrificed. Changes in knowledge base might have far-reaching
effects.
Cumbersome control information.
UNIT-IV
Specific attributes instance and isa play an important role particularly in a useful form of
reasoning called property inheritance.
The predicates instance and isa explicitly captured the relationships they used to express,
namely class membership and class inclusion.
4.2 shows the first five sentences of the last section represented in logic in three different
ways.
The first part of the figure contains the representations we have already discussed. In
these representations, class membership represented with unary predicates (such as
Roman), each of which corresponds to a class.
Asserting that P(x) is true is equivalent to asserting that x is an instance (or element) of P.
The second part of the figure contains representations that use the instance predicate
explicitly.
Resolution Procedure
Resolution is a procedure, which gains its efficiency from the fact that it operates on
statements that have been converted to a very convenient standard form.
Resolution produces proofs by refutation.
In other words, to prove a statement (i.e., to show that it is valid), resolution attempts to
show that the negation of the statement produces a contradiction with the known
statements (i.e., that it is unsatisfiable).
The resolution procedure is a simple iterative process: at each step, two clauses, called
the parent clauses, are compared (resolved), resulting in a new clause that has inferred
from them. The new clause represents ways that the two parent clauses interact with each
other. Suppose that there are two clauses in the system:
winter V summer
¬ winter V cold
Now we observe that precisely one of winter and ¬ winter will be true at any point.
If winter is true, then cold must be true to guarantee the truth of the second clause. If ¬
winter is true, then summer must be true to guarantee the truth of the first clause.
Thus we see that from these two clauses we can deduce summer V cold
This is the deduction that the resolution procedure will make.
Resolution operates by taking two clauses that each contains the same literal, in this
example, winter.
Moreover, The literal must occur in the positive form in one clause and in negative form
in the other. The resolvent obtained by combining all of the literals of the two parent
clauses except the ones that cancel.
If the clause that produced is the empty clause, then a contradiction has found.
For example, the two clauses
winter
¬ winter
will produce the empty clause.
Rule for T
The simplest introduction rule is the one for T. It is called "unit". Because it has no premises, this
rule is an axiom: something that can start a proof.
(unit)
T
Rules for Implication
In natural deduction, to prove an implication of the form P ⇒ Q, we assume P, then reason under
that assumption to try to derive Q. If we are successful, then we can conclude that P ⇒ Q.
In a proof, we are always allowed to introduce a new assumption P, then reason under that
assumption. We must give the assumption a name; we have used the name x in the example
below. Each distinct assumption must have a different name.
(assum)
[x : P]
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Because it has no premises, this rule can also start a proof. It can be used as if the proposition P
were proved. The name of the assumption is also indicated here.
However, you do not get to make assumptions for free! To get a complete proof, all assumptions
must be eventually discharged. This is done in the implication introduction rule. This rule
introduces an implication P ⇒ Q by discharging a prior assumption [x : P]. Intuitively, if Q can
be proved under the assumption P, then the implication P ⇒ Q holds without any assumptions.
We write x in the rule name to show which assumption is discharged. This rule and modus
ponens are the introduction and elimination rules for implications.
[x : P]
⋮ P P⇒Q
(⇒-elim, modus ponens)
Q Q
P ⇒ Q (⇒-intro/x)
A proof is valid only if every assumption is eventually discharged. This must happen in the proof
tree below the assumption. The same assumption can be used more than once.
Rules for Disjunction
P (∨-intro- Q (∨-intro- P∨Q P⇒R Q ⇒ R (∨-
P ∨ Q left) P ∨ Q right) R elim)
A proposition that has a complete proof in a deductive system is called a theorem of that system.
Soundness and Completeness
A measure of a deductive system's power is whether it is powerful enough to prove all true
statements. A deductive system is said to be complete if all true statements are theorems (have
proofs in the system). For propositional logic and natural deduction, this means that all
tautologies must have natural deduction proofs. Conversely, a deductive system is
called sound if all theorems are true. The proof rules we have given above are in fact sound and
complete for propositional logic: every theorem is a tautology, and every tautology is a theorem.
Finding a proof for a given tautology can be difficult. But once the proof is found, checking that
it is indeed a proof is completely mechanical, requiring no intelligence or insight whatsoever. It
is therefore a very strong argument that the thing proved is in fact true.
We can also make writing proofs less tedious by adding more rules that provide reasoning
shortcuts. These rules are sound if there is a way to convert a proof using them into a proof using
the original rules. Such added rules are called admissible.