Article View: sci.philosophy.tech
Article #928Unbelievable but true...
From: jiml
Date: Thu, 28 May 1987 09:14
Date: Thu, 28 May 1987 09:14
31 lines
1520 bytes
1520 bytes
I hope this is the correct group in which to post an article on a curiosity in epistemic logic. It seems that there are a class of sentences which, while true, may not be believed. I'll give first an example of an entirely reasonable statement, followed by a close cousin which is unbelievable but true. let p = "it is raining" 1. Bel(Smith, p & ~Bel(Jones,p)) Smith believes that it is raining but that Jones doesn't believe it. 2. ~Bel(Jones, p & ~Bel(Jones,p)) Note that in this case, p & ~Bel(Jones,p) may well be true, but that Jones is incapable of believing it. It's been a while since I've seen the derivation, but I recall that the following is a theorem of epistemic logic: 3. (x)(p)~Bel(x, p & ~Bel(x,p)) provided that 4. Bel(x,p) > Bel(Bel(x,p)) is an axiom. Good grief, my memory is getting rusty. Is it S4 that is typically used to model epistemic logics? Anyway, can anyone out there add to this curious class of sentences?
Technical Details
Message-ID:
<1150@cavell.UUCP>Path:
arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!alberta!jimlShow Full Headers
Complete Article Headers
Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!alberta!jiml From: jiml@alberta.UUCP Newsgroups: sci.philosophy.tech Subject: Unbelievable but true... Message-ID: <1150@cavell.UUCP> Date: Thu, 28-May-87 05:14:19 EDT Article-I.D.: cavell.1150 Posted: Thu May 28 05:14:19 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 30-May-87 00:38:10 EDT Reply-To: jiml@cavell.UUCP (Jim Laycock) Distribution: world Organization: U. of Alberta, Edmonton, AB Lines: 31 Keywords: epistemic logic