scholarly journals COMPLETENESS FOR COUNTER-DOXA CONDITIONALS – USING RANKING SEMANTICS

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 861-891 ◽  
Author(s):  
ERIC RAIDL

AbstractStandard conditionals $\varphi > \psi$, by which I roughly mean variably strict conditionals à la Stalnaker and Lewis, are trivially true for impossible antecedents. This article investigates three modifications in a doxastic setting. For the neutral conditional, all impossible-antecedent conditionals are false, for the doxastic conditional they are only true if the consequent is absolutely necessary, and for the metaphysical conditional only if the consequent is ‘model-implied’ by the antecedent. I motivate these conditionals logically, and also doxastically by properties of conditional belief and belief revision. For this I show that the Lewisian hierarchy of conditional logics can be reproduced within ranking semantics, provided we slightly stretch the notion of a ranking function. Given this, acceptance of a conditional can be interpreted as a conditional belief. The epistemic and the neutral conditional deviate from Lewis’ weakest system $V$, in that ID ($\varphi > \varphi$) or even CN ($\varphi > \top$) are dropped, and new axioms appear. The logic of the metaphysical conditional is completely axiomatised by $V$ to which we add the known Kripke axioms T5 for the outer modality. Related completeness results for variations of the ranking semantics are obtained as corollaries.

Author(s):  
Gabriele Kern-Isberner ◽  
Christoph Beierle ◽  
Gerhard Brewka

Syntax splitting, first introduced by Parikh in 1999, is a natural and desirable property of KR systems. Syntax splitting combines two aspects: it requires that the outcome of a certain epistemic operation should only depend on relevant parts of the underlying knowledge base, where relevance is given a syntactic interpretation (relevance). It also requires that strengthening antecedents by irrelevant information should have no influence on the obtained conclusions (independence). In the context of belief revision the study of syntax splitting already proved useful and led to numerous new insights. In this paper we analyse syntax splitting in a different setting, namely nonmonotonic reasoning based on conditional knowledge bases. More precisely, we analyse inductive inference operators which, like system P, system Z, or the more recent c-inference, generate an inference relation from a conditional knowledge base. We axiomatize the two aforementioned aspects of syntax splitting, relevance and independence, as properties of such inductive inference operators. Our main results show that system P and system Z, whilst satisfying relevance, fail to satisfy independence. C-inference, in contrast, turns out to satisfy both relevance and independence and thus fully complies with syntax splitting.


10.29007/3q8l ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriele Kern-Isberner ◽  
Tanja Bock ◽  
Kai Sauerwald ◽  
Christoph Beierle

Research on iterated belief change has focussed mostly on belief revision, only few papers have addressed iterated belief contraction. Most prominently, Darwiche and Pearl published seminal work on iterated belief revision the leading paradigm of which is the so-called principle of conditional preservation. In this paper, we use this principle in a thoroughly axiomatized form to develop iterated belief contraction operators for Spohn's ranking functions. We show that it allows for setting up constructive approaches to tackling the problem of how to contract a ranking function by a proposition or a conditional, respectively, and that semantic principles can also be derived from it for the purely qualitative case.


2021 ◽  
pp. 20-34
Author(s):  
Franz Huber

This chapter first discusses which agents this book focuses on and which ends they are assumed to have. Then it briefly describes how this relates to conditional belief and belief revision.


2020 ◽  
pp. 155-179
Author(s):  
Scott Sturgeon

Chapter 5 is an introduction to the AGM model of belief revision. It begins with an explanation of belief and how sets of sentences are used to model psychological states of an agent. The model’s norms are shown to flow directly from Jamesian ideas that inquiry targets truth and the avoidance of error. Suspended judgement and disbelief are discussed, and the model’s treatment of them is used to spell out its transition rules. Slowly and carefully the main technical idea in the model’s transition theory—known as ‘partial meet contraction’—is explained for the beginner. The model’s postulates are then listed, its revision theorem is explained, and its approach to conditional belief is spelled out. The chapter closes by describing a notionally possible agent, Bella, whose psychology matches the Belief Model.


Author(s):  
Franz Huber

This book is the first of two volumes on belief and counterfactuals. It consists of six of a total of eleven chapters. The first volume is concerned primarily with questions in epistemology and is expository in parts. Among other theories, it provides an accessible introduction to belief revision and ranking theory. Ranking theory specifies how conditional beliefs should behave. It does not tell us why they should do so nor what they are. This book fills these two gaps. The consistency argument tells us why conditional beliefs should obey the laws of ranking theory by showing them to be the means to attaining the end of holding true and informative beliefs. The conditional theory of conditional belief tells us what conditional beliefs are by specifying their nature in terms of non-conditional belief and counterfactuals. In addition, the book contains several novel arguments, accounts, and applications. These include an argument for the thesis that there are only hypothetical imperatives and no categorical imperatives; an account of the instrumentalist understanding of normativity, or rationality, according to which one ought to take the means to one’s ends; as well as solutions to the problems of conceptual belief change, logical learning, and learning conditionals. A distinctive feature of the book is its unifying methodological approach: means-end philosophy. Means-end philosophy takes serious that philosophy is a normative discipline, and that philosophical problems are entangled with each other. It also explains the importance of logic to philosophy, without being a technical theory itself.


Author(s):  
Carolyn Nohr ◽  
Ann Ayres

Texts on electron diffraction recommend that the camera constant of the electron microscope be determine d by calibration with a standard crystalline specimen, using the equation


Author(s):  
Kin Lam

The energy of moving ions in solid is dependent on the electronic density as well as the atomic structural properties of the target material. These factors contribute to the observable effects in polycrystalline material using the scanning ion microscope. Here we outline a method to investigate the dependence of low velocity proton stopping on interatomic distances and orientations.The interaction of charged particles with atoms in the frame work of the Fermi gas model was proposed by Lindhard. For a system of atoms, the electronic Lindhard stopping power can be generalized to the formwhere the stopping power function is defined as


Author(s):  
A. Kosiara ◽  
J. W. Wiggins ◽  
M. Beer

A magnetic spectrometer to be attached to the Johns Hopkins S. T. E. M. is under construction. Its main purpose will be to investigate electron interactions with biological molecules in the energy range of 40 KeV to 100 KeV. The spectrometer is of the type described by Kerwin and by Crewe Its magnetic pole boundary is given by the equationwhere R is the electron curvature radius. In our case, R = 15 cm. The electron beam will be deflected by an angle of 90°. The distance between the electron source and the pole boundary will be 30 cm. A linear fringe field will be generated by a quadrupole field arrangement. This is accomplished by a grounded mirror plate and a 45° taper of the magnetic pole.


Author(s):  
N. J. Zaluzec

The ultimate sensitivity of microchemical analysis using x-ray emission rests in selecting those experimental conditions which will maximize the measured peak-to-background (P/B) ratio. This paper presents the results of calculations aimed at determining the influence of incident beam energy, detector/specimen geometry and specimen composition on the P/B ratio for ideally thin samples (i.e., the effects of scattering and absorption are considered negligible). As such it is assumed that the complications resulting from system peaks, bremsstrahlung fluorescence, electron tails and specimen contamination have been eliminated and that one needs only to consider the physics of the generation/emission process.The number of characteristic x-ray photons (Ip) emitted from a thin foil of thickness dt into the solid angle dΩ is given by the well-known equation


Author(s):  
G. Cliff ◽  
M.J. Nasir ◽  
G.W. Lorimer ◽  
N. Ridley

In a specimen which is transmission thin to 100 kV electrons - a sample in which X-ray absorption is so insignificant that it can be neglected and where fluorescence effects can generally be ignored (1,2) - a ratio of characteristic X-ray intensities, I1/I2 can be converted into a weight fraction ratio, C1/C2, using the equationwhere k12 is, at a given voltage, a constant independent of composition or thickness, k12 values can be determined experimentally from thin standards (3) or calculated (4,6). Both experimental and calculated k12 values have been obtained for K(11<Z>19),kα(Z>19) and some Lα radiation (3,6) at 100 kV. The object of the present series of experiments was to experimentally determine k12 values at voltages between 200 and 1000 kV and to compare these with calculated values.The experiments were carried out on an AEI-EM7 HVEM fitted with an energy dispersive X-ray detector.


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