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First Order Logic

The document discusses First Order Logic (FOL) as a more expressive alternative to propositional logic for representing knowledge about complex environments. It emphasizes the importance of representing objects, relations, and functions to capture commonsense knowledge effectively. Additionally, it explores the interplay between formal and natural languages in conveying meaning and the implications of ontological and epistemological commitments in logic.

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Bala Murali
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11 views17 pages

First Order Logic

The document discusses First Order Logic (FOL) as a more expressive alternative to propositional logic for representing knowledge about complex environments. It emphasizes the importance of representing objects, relations, and functions to capture commonsense knowledge effectively. Additionally, it explores the interplay between formal and natural languages in conveying meaning and the implications of ontological and epistemological commitments in logic.

Uploaded by

Bala Murali
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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First Order Logic

In which we notice that the world is blessed with many objects, some of
which are related to other objects, and in which we endeavor to reason
about them.
First Order Logic
• Propositional logic as our representation language - sufficed - basic
concepts of logic and knowledge-based agents.

• propositional logic is too puny a language to represent knowledge of


complex environments in a concise way.

• first-order logic, is sufficiently expressive to represent a good deal of


our commonsense knowledge.

• FOL is also called as First Order Predicate Calculus (FOPC).


Representation
• Data structures within programs can represent facts; for example, a
program could use a 4 × 4 array to represent the contents of the
wumpus world.
• The statement World[2,2]← Pit
• is a fairly natural way to assert that there is a pit in square [2,2].
• database systems were developed precisely to provide a more
general, domain-independent way to store and retrieve facts.
• Programming languages lack - any general mechanism for deriving
facts from other facts;
• each update to a data structure is done by a domain-specific
procedure
Representation
• Declarative nature of propositional logic - knowledge and inference
are separate - inference is entirely domain independent.
• next drawback of data structures / database in programs - lack of any
easy way to say.
• Eg: “There is a pit in [2,2] or [3,1]” or “If the wumpus is in [1,1] then
he is not in [2,2].
• Data Structures - lack the expressiveness required to handle partial
information.
• Propositional Logic - expressive power to deal with partial
information, using disjunction and negation.
Representation
• Propositional logic has a property – compositionality.
• For example, the meaning of “S1,4 ∧ S1,2” is related to the meanings
of “S1,4” and “S1,2.”
• propositional logic lacks the expressive power to concisely describe an
environment with many objects.
• Eg: we were forced to write a separate rule about breezes and pits for
each square, such as
The language of thought
• Natural languages (such as English or Spanish) are very expressive
indeed.

• Natural languages also suffer from a ambiguity, a problem for a


representation language - if one word can correspond to two
thoughts, thoughts can’t be words.”

• The famous Sapir–Whorf hypothesis claims that our understanding of


the world is strongly influenced by the language we speak.
The language of thought

• Whorf (1956) wrote “We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and
ascribe significances as we do, largely because we are parties to an
agreement to organize it this way—an agreement that holds
throughout our speech community and is codified in the patterns of
our language.”
The language of thought
• The French have two words “chaise” and “fauteuil,” for a concept that
English speakers cover with one: “chair.”

• But English speakers can easily recognize the category fauteuil and
give it a name—roughly “open-arm chair”.

• Speakers of the Australian aboriginal language Guugu Yimithirr have


no words for relative directions, such as front, back, right, or left.
The language of thought
• Instead they use absolute directions, saying, for example, the
equivalent of “I have a pain in my north arm.”

• For example, “bridge” is masculine in Spanish and feminine in


German.
Combining the best of formal
and natural languages
• propositional logic—a declarative, compositional semantics that is
context-independent and unambiguous.

• borrowing representational ideas from natural language while


avoiding its drawbacks.

• Objects: people, houses, numbers, theories, Ronald McDonald,


colors, baseball games, wars, centuries ...
Combining the best of formal
and natural languages
• Relations: these can be unary relations or properties such as red,
round, bogus, prime, multistoried ...,
• or more general n-ary relations such as brother of, bigger than, inside,
part of, has color, occurred after, owns, comes between, ...

• Functions: father of, best friend, third inning of, one more than,
beginning of ...

• almost any assertion can be thought of as referring to objects and


properties or relations.
Combining the best of formal
and natural languages
• “One plus two equals three.”
• Objects: one, two, three, one plus two;
• Relation: equals;
• Function: plus.

• “One plus two” is a name for the object that is obtained by applying
the function “plus” to the objects “one” and “two.”
• “Three” is another name for this object.
Combining the best of formal
and natural languages
• “Squares neighboring the wumpus are smelly.”
• Objects: wumpus, squares;
• Property: smelly;
• Relation: neighboring.
Combining the best of formal
and natural languages
• “Evil King John ruled England in 1200.”

• Objects: John, England, 1200;


• Relation: ruled;
• Properties: evil, king.
Combining the best of formal
and natural languages
• first-order logic, is built around objects and relations.

• First-order logic can also express facts about some or all of the objects
in the universe.

• This enables one to represent general laws or rules, such as the


statement “Squares neighboring the wumpus are smelly”.
Combining the best of formal
and natural languages
• The primary difference between propositional and first-order logic lies in
the ontological commitment made by each language—
• what it assumes about the nature of reality.

• A logic can also be characterized by its epistemological commitments—


the possible states of knowledge that it allows with respect to each fact.

• In both propositional and first order logic, a sentence represents a fact


and the agent either believes the sentence to be true, believes it to be
false, or has no opinion.
Combining the best of formal
and natural languages

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