Logic and Information [Paperback]

Paperback edition of ground-breaking new theory of information processing.Arguing that we must broaden our concept of logic to obtain a deeper understanding of intelligence and knowledge acquisition, this study outlines a new kind of logic that is capable of handling the issues involved in human communication and machine information processing.Arguing that we must broaden our concept of logic to obtain a deeper understanding of intelligence and knowledge acquisition, this study outlines a new kind of logic that is capable of handling the issues involved in human communication and machine information processing.In this provocative and ground-breaking book, Keith Devlin argues that in order to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of intelligence and knowledge acquisition, we must broaden our concept of logic. Classical logic, beginning with the work of Aristotle, has developed into a powerful and rigorous mathematical theory with many applications in mathematics and computer science, but it has proved woefully inadequate in the search for artificial intelligence. The new kind of logic, also mathematically based, outlined by Professor Devlin is the culmination of collaborative research among some of the world's leading logicians, philosophers, linguists, psychologists, and computer scientists. It introduces the concepts of infon, a quantum of information, and situations, a dynamical generalization of sets, and is capable of handlng the issues involved in human communication, thought, speech, and machine information processing.1. Logic; 2. Information; 3. Situation theory; 4. Meaning and constraints; 5. Some logical issues; 6. Mental states; 7. Perception and action; 8. Situation semantics; 9. Topics in situation semantics; 10. Historical perspectives and future directions. A bold effort to restore logic as the science of 'reasoning, thinking, and inference'....Devlin writes with uncommon clarity for an interdisciplinary audience of linguists, computer scientisl,