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Basic Elements of First-Order Logic

First-order logic (FOL) extends propositional logic by adding quantifiers and predicates to represent objects, relations, and functions in the world. FOL allows modeling natural language statements in a concise way by assuming the existence of objects, relations between objects, and functions. The syntax of FOL defines logical expressions using symbols like constants, variables, predicates, functions, and quantifiers. Well-formed expressions include atomic sentences relating predicates and terms as well as complex sentences combining atomic sentences with logical connectives.

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109 views5 pages

Basic Elements of First-Order Logic

First-order logic (FOL) extends propositional logic by adding quantifiers and predicates to represent objects, relations, and functions in the world. FOL allows modeling natural language statements in a concise way by assuming the existence of objects, relations between objects, and functions. The syntax of FOL defines logical expressions using symbols like constants, variables, predicates, functions, and quantifiers. Well-formed expressions include atomic sentences relating predicates and terms as well as complex sentences combining atomic sentences with logical connectives.

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raj sashank
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o First-order logic is another way of knowledge representation in artificial

intelligence. It is an extension to propositional logic.


o FOL is sufficiently expressive to represent the natural language statements in a
concise way.
o First-order logic is also known as Predicate logic or First-order predicate logic.
First-order logic is a powerful language that develops information about the
objects in a more easy way and can also express the relationship between those
objects.
o First-order logic (like natural language) does not only assume that the world
contains facts like propositional logic but also assumes the following things in the
world:
o Objects: A, B, people, numbers, colors, wars, theories, squares, pits,
wumpus, ......
o Relations: It can be unary relation such as: red, round, is adjacent, or n-
any relation such as: the sister of, brother of, has color, comes between
o Function: Father of, best friend, third inning of, end of, ......
o As a natural language, first-order logic also has two main parts:

o Syntax
o Semantics
o Syntax of First-Order logic:
o The syntax of FOL determines which collection of symbols is a logical expression
in first-order logic. The basic syntactic elements of first-order logic are symbols.
We write statements in short-hand notation in FOL.
o Basic Elements of First-order logic:
o Following are the basic elements of FOL syntax:

Constant 1, 2, A, John, Mumbai, cat,....

Variables x, y, z, a, b,....

Predicates Brother, Father, >,....

Function sqrt, LeftLegOf, ....


Connectives ∧, ∨, ¬, ⇒, ⇔

Equality ==

Quantifier ∀, ∃

Atomic sentences:

o Atomic sentences are the most basic sentences of first-order logic. These sentences are
formed from a predicate symbol followed by a parenthesis with a sequence of terms.
o We can represent atomic sentences as Predicate (term1, term2, ......, term n).

Example: Ravi and Ajay are brothers: => Brothers(Ravi, Ajay).


                Chinky is a cat: => cat (Chinky).

Complex Sentences:

o Complex sentences are made by combining atomic sentences using connectives.

First-order logic statements can be divided into two parts:

o Subject: Subject is the main part of the statement.


o Predicate: A predicate can be defined as a relation, which binds two atoms together in a
statement.

Consider the statement: "x is an integer.", it consists of two parts, the first part x is
the subject of the statement and second part "is an integer," is known as a predicate.

Quantifiers in First-order logic:


o A quantifier is a language element which generates quantification, and quantification
specifies the quantity of specimen in the universe of discourse.
o These are the symbols that permit to determine or identify the range and scope of the
variable in the logical expression. There are two types of quantifier:

0. Universal Quantifier, (for all, everyone, everything)


1. Existential quantifier, (for some, at least one).

Universal Quantifier:
Universal quantifier is a symbol of logical representation, which specifies that the
statement within its range is true for everything or every instance of a particular thing.

The Universal quantifier is represented by a symbol ∀, which resembles an inverted A.

If x is a variable, then ∀x is read as:

o For all x
o For each x
o For every x.

Example:
All man drink coffee.

Let a variable x which refers to a cat so all x can be represented in UOD as below:
∀x man(x) → drink (x, coffee).

It will be read as: There are all x where x is a man who drink coffee.

Existential Quantifier:
Existential quantifiers are the type of quantifiers, which express that the statement within
its scope is true for at least one instance of something.

It is denoted by the logical operator ∃, which resembles as inverted E. When it is used


with a predicate variable then it is called as an existential quantifier.

If x is a variable, then existential quantifier will be ∃x or ∃(x). And it will be read as:

o There exists a 'x.'


o For some 'x.'
o For at least one 'x.'

Example:
Some boys are intelligent.
∃x: boys(x) ∧ intelligent(x)

It will be read as: There are some x where x is a boy who is intelligent.

Properties of Quantifiers:
o In universal quantifier, ∀x∀y is similar to ∀y∀x.
o In Existential quantifier, ∃x∃y is similar to ∃y∃x.
o ∃x∀y is not similar to ∀y∃x.

Free and Bound Variables:


The quantifiers interact with variables which appear in a suitable way. There are two
types of variables in First-order logic which are given below:

Free Variable: A variable is said to be a free variable in a formula if it occurs outside the
scope of the quantifier. Example: ∀x ∃(y)[P (x, y, z)], where z is a free variable.

Bound Variable: A variable is said to be a bound variable in a formula if it occurs within


the scope of the quantifier.

          Example: ∀x [A (x) B( y)], here x and y are the bound variables.

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