Chapter 2 Propositional Logic Logic in Action（第二章命题逻辑,逻辑在行动）.pdf

Chapter 2 Propositional Logic Overview The most basic logical inferences are about combinations of sentences, ex- pressed by such frequent expressions as ‘not’, ‘and’, ‘or’, ‘if, then’. Such combinations allow you to describe situations, and what properties these situations have or lack: some- thing is ‘not this, but that’. You could call this reasoning about ‘classification’, and it is the basis of any description of the world. At the same time, these logical sentence com- binations are also fundamental in another sense, as they structure how we communicate and engage in argumentation. When you disagree with a claim that someone makes, you often try to derive a consequence (’if then’) whose negation (‘not’) is easier to show. We will study all these patterns of reasoning below. More precisely, in this first chapter you will be introduced to propositional logic , the logical system behind the reasoning with ‘not’, ‘and’, ‘or’, ‘if, then’ and other basic sentence-combining operators. You will get acquainted with the notions of formula, logi- cal connective, truth, valid consequence, information update, formal proof, and expressive power, while we also present some backgrounds in computation and cognition. 2.1 Reasoning in Daily Life Logic can be seen in action all around us: In a restaurant, your Father has ordered Fish, your Mother ordered Vegetarian, and you ordered Meat. Out of the kitchen comes some new person carrying the three plates. What will happen? We have know this from experience. The waiter asks a first question, say “Who ordered the meat?”, and puts that plate. Then he asks a second question “Who has the fish?”, and puts that plate. And then, without asking further, he knows he has to put the remaining plate in front of your Mother. What has happened here? 2-1 2-2 CHAPTER 2.