ontolog-forum
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [ontolog-forum] Sorted for ∃s and whizz (was Re: type free logic an

To: "[ontolog-forum] " <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Simon Spero <ses@xxxxxxx>
From: Pat Hayes <phayes@xxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 20 Aug 2011 00:30:51 -0500
Message-id: <CDB99148-2B93-467F-A572-B3D16AD7DA4D@xxxxxxx>

On Aug 19, 2011, at 8:14 PM, Simon Spero wrote:    (01)

> On Fri, Aug 19, 2011 at 5:30 PM, Pat Hayes <phayes@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
>  I have been taken to task by some very competent logicians for calling CL 
>first-order, as they are using a purely syntactic criterion of order. Nobody 
>is right in debates like this[...]
> 
> Nobody's right if everybody's wrong...
> 
> But I didn't come here to talk order, law and or otherwise.  I came here to 
>talk about CL, types/sorts, and syntax.  All of the concrete syntactic sugar 
>to allow variables to be constrained to satisfy some one-place predicate. 
>However, the semantics are explicitly and deliberately designed so that type 
>errors lead to sentences which are always  false, rather than being syntax 
>errors.      (02)

Yes, that is correct.     (03)

> Was a sorted dialect of CL ever proposed?    (04)

In the early stages of the project, there was some enthusiasm for this idea, 
yes. However, as far as I know, nobody in the working group ever came up with a 
concrete proposal for a fully sorted logic. In order to be fully general, it 
would have to provide a general notation for defining the sorts and the sort 
constraints upon the arguments of all sorted relations, and relationships that 
hold between sorts. The major problem is that there is no single notion of a 
sorted logic, and no rational way to choose between the many alternatives. We 
could not agree, as I recall, on such matters as whether sorts should be 
allowed to form a hierarchy, whether or not overloading would be allowed (eg 
the binary relation Married whose arguments can be of sort (male, female) or 
(female, male) but not  - bear in mind this was several years ago - (male, 
male) or (female, female) ). On balance, since the proponents of a sorted logic 
were not able to agree on even the most basic decisions which need to be 
settled before a logic could even be designed, the decision was taken to make 
the logic unsorted. This was in any case in line with the  emerging sense that 
the purpose of CL would be best served by making the logic have as few 
syntactic constraints as possible, what Chris Menzel once called 'wild west 
syntax', which is about as far from a typed logic as one can get.     (05)

This was several years ago, so is based upon recollection. Others who were 
involved may remember other details.     (06)

Pat    (07)


> 
> Simon   
>  
> 
> _________________________________________________________________
> Message Archives: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/  
> Config Subscr: http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/ontolog-forum/  
> Unsubscribe: mailto:ontolog-forum-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Shared Files: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/
> Community Wiki: http://ontolog.cim3.net/wiki/ 
> To join: http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?WikiHomePage#nid1J    (08)

------------------------------------------------------------
IHMC                                     (850)434 8903 or (650)494 3973   
40 South Alcaniz St.           (850)202 4416   office
Pensacola                            (850)202 4440   fax
FL 32502                              (850)291 0667   mobile
phayesAT-SIGNihmc.us       http://www.ihmc.us/users/phayes    (09)






_________________________________________________________________
Message Archives: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/  
Config Subscr: http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/ontolog-forum/  
Unsubscribe: mailto:ontolog-forum-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Shared Files: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/
Community Wiki: http://ontolog.cim3.net/wiki/ 
To join: http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?WikiHomePage#nid1J    (010)

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>