ISSSSM@NUSVM.BITNET (Stephen Smoliar) (06/18/91)
In article <1991Jun17.032758.14030@aifh.ed.ac.uk> cam@aifh.ed.ac.uk (Chris Malcolm) writes: > >The unfortunate problem with logic is not that it is deficient as a >system of reasoning, but that there are so few collections of english >language propositions about the world to which it can be usefully >applied. Usually it just gives silly results, as in the above example. Actually, the unfortunate problem resides not in logic, itself, but in the confused minds of those who really do not understand it. The heart of the confusion lies in the assumption that a tool which provides EXPLANATORY value can also provide PREDICTIVE value. Given something which we are willing to accept as reasoning, the "logical approach" allows us to abstract our evidence and distill it down to symbolic representations and operators. (Note that I am not saying anything about Aristotle's syllogisms or Boole's "laws of thought"--perhaps one of the most damaging phrases in human intellectual history. If Walid's "logic of Cheo Wawa" does the trick, it is as good as any other system.) However, all the distilled explanations of all the intelligent behavior we can ever hope to observe is not necessarily going to provide the stuff from which we can build a new intelligent agent to go out there and survive in our world. In other words if we wish to explain the conclusions Walid draws about knowledge of Sam's pregnancy, then logic is one way in which to summarize the evidence we have of Walid's beliefs; but if we need a mechanism to tell us all the things Walid believes about Sam upon being told that Sam is pregnant, then, as Chris has put it, we cannot hope for anything better than "silly results." =============================================================================== Stephen W. Smoliar Institute of Systems Science National University of Singapore Heng Mui Keng Terrace, Kent Ridge SINGAPORE 0511 BITNET: ISSSSM@NUSVM "He was of Lord Essex's opinion, 'rather to go an hundred miles to speak with one wise man, than five miles to see a fair town.'"--Boswell on Johnson