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Logic and CS / Huth, Ryan. Logic in Computer Science, 2004 (Cambridge).pdf
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5.2 Basic modal logic

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interacting agents are developed. Each agent may have di erent knowledge about the environment and also about the knowledge of other agents. In this chapter, we will look in depth at modal logics applied to reasoning about knowledge.

Modal logic adds unary connectives to express one, or more, of these di erent modes of truth. The simplest modal logics just deal with one concept – such as knowledge, necessity, or time. More sophisticated modal logics have connectives for expressing several modes of truth in the same logic; we will see some of these towards the end of this chapter.

We take a logic engineering approach in this chapter, in which we address the following question: given a particular mode of truth, how may we develop a logic capable of expressing and formalising that concept? To answer this question, we need to decide what properties the logic should have and what examples of reasoning it should be able to express. Our main case study will be the logic of knowledge in a multi-agent system. But first, we look at the syntax and semantics of basic modal logic.

5.2 Basic modal logic

5.2.1 Syntax

The language of basic modal logic is that of propositional logic with two extra connectives, and . Like negation (¬), they are unary connectives as they apply themselves to a single formula only. As done in Chapters 1 and 3, we write p, q, r, p3 . . . to denote atomic formulas.

Definition 5.1 The formulas of basic modal logic φ are defined by the following Backus Naur form (BNF):

φ ::= | | p | (¬φ) | (φ φ) | (φ φ) | (φ → φ) | (φ ↔ φ) | ( φ) | ( φ) (5.1)

where p is any atomic formula.

Example formulas of basic modal logic are (p (p → ¬r)) and (( q ¬r) → p), having the parse trees shown in Figure 5.1. The following strings are not formulas, because they cannot be constructed using the grammar in (5.1): (p → q) and (p → (q r)).

Convention 5.2 As done in Chapter 1, we assume that the unary connectives (¬, and ) bind most closely, followed by and and then followed by and .

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