Module-4:Introduction to
Module-
Propositional Logic
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Propositional logic
• Logical constants: true, false
• Propositional symbols: P, Q, S, ... (atomic sentences)
• Wrapping parentheses: ( … )
• Sentences are combined by connectives:
...and [conjunction]
...or [disjunction]
...implies [implication / conditional]
..is equivalent [bi-conditional]
...not [negation]
• Literal: atomic sentence or negated atomic sentence
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Examples of PL sentences
• P means “It is hot.”
• Q means “It is humid.”
• R means “It is raining.”
• (P Q) R
“If it is hot and humid, then it is raining”
• QP
“If it is humid, then it is hot”
• A better way:
Hot = “It is hot”
Humid = “It is humid”
Raining = “It is raining”
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Propositional logic (PL)
• A simple language useful for showing key ideas and definitions
• User defines a set of propositional symbols, like P and Q.
• User defines the semantics of each propositional symbol:
– P means “It is hot”
– Q means “It is humid”
– R means “It is raining”
• A sentence (well formed formula) is defined as follows:
– A symbol is a sentence
– If S is a sentence, then S is a sentence
– If S is a sentence, then (S) is a sentence
– If S and T are sentences, then (S T), (S T), (S T), and (S ↔ T) are
sentences
– A sentence results from a finite number of applications of the above rules
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A BNF grammar of sentences in
propositional logic
S := <Sentence> ;
<Sentence> := <AtomicSentence> | <ComplexSentence> ;
<AtomicSentence> := "TRUE" | "FALSE" |
"P" | "Q" | "S" ;
<ComplexSentence> := "(" <Sentence> ")" |
<Sentence> <Connective> <Sentence> |
"NOT" <Sentence> ;
<Connective> := "NOT" | "AND" | "OR" | "IMPLIES" |
"EQUIVALENT" ;
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Some terms
• The meaning or semantics of a sentence determines its
interpretation.
• Given the truth values of all symbols in a sentence, it can be
“evaluated” to determine its truth value (True or False).
• A model for a KB is a “possible world” (assignment of truth
values to propositional symbols) in which each sentence in the
KB is True.
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More terms
• A valid sentence or tautology is a sentence that is True
under all interpretations, no matter what the world is
actually like or how the semantics are defined. Example:
“It’s raining or it’s not raining.”
• An inconsistent sentence or contradiction is a sentence
that is False under all interpretations. The world is never
like what it describes, as in “It’s raining and it’s not
raining.”
• P entails Q, written P |= Q, means that whenever P is True,
so is Q. In other words, all models of P are also models of
Q.
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Truth tables
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Truth tables II
The five logical connectives:
A complex sentence:
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Models of complex sentences
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Inference rules
• Logical inference is used to create new sentences that
logically follow from a given set of predicate calculus
sentences (KB).
• An inference rule is sound if every sentence X produced by
an inference rule operating on a KB logically follows from
the KB. (That is, the inference rule does not create any
contradictions)
• An inference rule is complete if it is able to produce every
expression that logically follows from (is entailed by) the
KB. (Note the analogy to complete search algorithms.)
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Sound rules of inference
• Here are some examples of sound rules of inference
– A rule is sound if its conclusion is true whenever the premise is true
• Each can be shown to be sound using a truth table
RULE PREMISE CONCLUSION
Modus Ponens A, A B B
And Introduction A, B AB
And Elimination AB A
Double Negation A A
Unit Resolution A B, B A
Resolution A B, B C AC
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Soundness of modus ponens
A B A→ B OK?
True True True
True False False
False True True
False False True
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Soundness of the
resolution inference rule
From the rightmost three columns of this truth table, we
can see that
(α β) (β γ) ↔ (α γ)
is valid (i.e., always true regardless of the truth values
assigned to α, β and γ
Proving things
• A proof is a sequence of sentences, where each sentence is either a
premise or a sentence derived from earlier sentences in the proof
by one of the rules of inference.
• The last sentence is the theorem (also called goal or query) that
we want to prove.
• Example for the “weather problem” given above.
1 Humid Premise “It is humid”
2 HumidHot Premise “If it is humid, it is hot”
3 Hot Modus Ponens(1,2) “It is hot”
4 (HotHumid)Rain Premise “If it’s hot & humid, it’s raining”
5 HotHumid And Introduction(1,2) “It is hot and humid”
6 Rain Modus Ponens(4,5) “It is raining”
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Horn sentences
• A Horn sentence or Horn clause has the form:
P1 P2 P3 ... Pn Q
or alternatively (P Q) = (P Q)
P1 P2 P3 ... Pn Q
where Ps and Q are non-negated atoms
• To get a proof for Horn sentences, apply Modus
Ponens repeatedly until nothing can be done
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Significance of Horn logic
• We can also have horn sentences in FOL
• Reasoning with horn clauses is much simpler
– Satisfiability of a propositional KB (i.e., finding
values for a symbols that will make it true) is NP
complete
– Restricting KB to horn sentences, satisfiability is in P
• For this reason, FOL Horn sentences are the basis
for Prolog and Datalog
• What Horn sentences give up are handling, in a
general way, (1) negation and (2) disjunctions
Entailment and derivation
• Entailment: KB |= Q
– Q is entailed by KB (a set of premises or assumptions) if and only if
there is no logically possible world in which Q is false while all the
premises in KB are true.
– Or, stated positively, Q is entailed by KB if and only if the
conclusion is true in every logically possible world in which all the
premises in KB are true.
• Derivation: KB |- Q
– We can derive Q from KB if there is a proof consisting of a
sequence of valid inference steps starting from the premises in KB
and resulting in Q
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Two important properties for inference
Soundness: If KB |- Q then KB |= Q
– If Q is derived from a set of sentences KB using a given set of rules
of inference, then Q is entailed by KB.
– Hence, inference produces only real entailments, or any sentence
that follows deductively from the premises is valid.
Completeness: If KB |= Q then KB |- Q
– If Q is entailed by a set of sentences KB, then Q can be derived from
KB using the rules of inference.
– Hence, inference produces all entailments, or all valid sentences can
be proved from the premises.
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Propositional logic: pro and con
• Advantages
– Simple KR language sufficient for some problems
– Lays the foundation for higher logics (e.g., FOL)
– Reasoning is decidable, though NP complete, and
efficient techniques exist for many problems
• Disadvantages
– Not expressive enough for most problems
– Even when it is, it can very “un-concise”
Propositional logic is a weak language
• Hard to identify “individuals” (e.g., Mary, 3)
• Can’t directly talk about properties of individuals or
relations between individuals (e.g., “Bill is tall”)
• Generalizations, patterns, regularities can’t easily be
represented (e.g., “all triangles have 3 sides”)
• First-Order Logic (abbreviated FOL or FOPC) is expressive
enough to concisely represent this kind of information
FOL adds relations, variables, and quantifiers, e.g.,
•“Every elephant is gray”: x (elephant(x) → gray(x))
•“There is a white alligator”: x (alligator(X) ^ white(X))
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PL Example-I
• Consider the problem of representing the following
information:
– Every person is mortal.
– Confucius is a person.
– Confucius is mortal.
• How can these sentences be represented so that we can infer
the third sentence from the first two?
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PL Example-II
• In PL we have to create propositional symbols to stand for all or
part of each sentence. For example, we might have:
P = “person”; Q = “mortal”; R = “Confucius”
• so the above 3 sentences are represented as:
P Q; R P; R Q
• Although the third sentence is entailed by the first two, we needed
an explicit symbol, R, to represent an individual, Confucius, who
is a member of the classes “person” and “mortal”
• To represent other individuals we must introduce separate
symbols for each one, with some way to represent the fact that all
individuals who are “people” are also “mortal”
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Summary
• The process of deriving new sentences from old one is called inference.
– Sound inference processes derives true conclusions given true premises
– Complete inference processes derive all true conclusions from a set of premises
• A valid sentence is true in all worlds under all interpretations
• If an implication sentence can be shown to be valid, then—given its
premise—its consequent can be derived
• Different logics make different commitments about what the world is made
of and what kind of beliefs we can have regarding the facts
– Logics are useful for the commitments they do not make because lack of
commitment gives the knowledge base engineer more freedom
• Propositional logic commits only to the existence of facts that may or may
not be the case in the world being represented
– It has a simple syntax and simple semantics. It suffices to illustrate the process
of inference
– Propositional logic quickly becomes impractical, even for very small worlds
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