A Brief History of Logic

Steffen Hölldobler
International Center for Computational Logic
Technische Universität Dresden, Germany
and
North Caucasus Federal University, Russian Federation

I History

I A Simple Example

I Literature

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History: Basic Ideas

Aristotle (†322 B.C.)

Formalization
syllogisms
SeP
PeQ
SeQ

Herodot (†430 B.C.)

Calculization
Egyptian stones, abacus

Herodot (†430 B.C.)

Mechanization
mechanai

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History: Combining the Ideas (1)

Descartes (1596-1650) Hobbes (1588-1679) Leibnitz (1646-1719)

geometry thinking lingua characteristica

= calculus ratiocinator
calculating universal encyclopedia

Lullus (1232-1315) Pascal (1623-1662) Leibnitz (1646-1719)

ars magna

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History: Combining the Ideas (2)

DeMorgan (1806-1871)
Boole (1815-1864) Frege(1882) Whitehead, Russell (1910-1913)

propositional logic first order logic Principia Mathematica

“Begriffsschrift”

Javins(1869) Babbage (1792-1871)

evaluating analytical engine

boolean
expressions

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History: Combining the Ideas (3)

civil servant’s logic:

F |= G iff G ∈ F
higher civil servant’s logic:
F |= G iff F = {G}
Skolem, Herbrand, Gödel (1930)

completeness of
first order logic
Zuse (1936-1941)

Z1, Z3

Turing (1936)

Turing machine

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History: Finally, Computers Arrive

von Neumann (1946) Zuse (1949) Turing (1950)

computer Plankalkül Turing test

Can machines think?

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History: Deduction Systems

I early 1950s: Davis: Preßburger arithmetic

I 1955/6: Beth, Schütte, Hintikka: semantic tableaus

I 1956: Simon, Newell: first heuristic theorem prover

I late 1950s: Gilmore, Davis, Putnam:

theorem prover based on Herbrand’s “Eigenschaft B Methode”

I 1960: Prawitz: unification

I 1965: J.A. Robinson: resolution principle

I thereafter: improved resolution rules vs. intelligent heuristics

I 1996: McCune’s OTTER proves Robbin’s conjecture

I today: TPTP library, yearly CASC competition

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History: Logic Programming

I 1971: A. Colmerauer: System Q Prolog

brother-of (X , Y ) ← father-of (Z , X ) ∧ father-of (Z , Y ) ∧ male(X )

I 1979: R.A. Kowalski: algorithm = logic + control

I late-70s to mid-80s: theoretical foundations

I 1977: D.H.D. Warren: first Prolog compiler

I 1982: A. Colmerauer: Prolog II constraints

. Constraint logic programming

I today: answer set programming

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A Simple Example

I Socrates is a human. All humans are mortal. Hence, Socrates is mortal.

human(socrates)
(forall X ) (if human(X ) then mortal(X ))
mortal(socrates)

h(s)
(∀X ) (h(X ) → m(X ))
m(s)

I 5 is a natural number. All natural numbers are integers. Hence, 5 is an integer.

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Deduction

I A world without deduction would be a world without science, technology, laws,

social conventions and culture (Johnson–Laird, Byrne: 1991)

I Think about it!

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The Addition of Natural Numbers

I The sum of zero and the number Y is Y. The sum of the successor of the
number X and the number Y is the successor of the sum of X and Y.

. Are you willing to conclude from these statements

that the sum of one and one is two?

0+Y =Y
s(X ) + Y = s(X + Y )
s(0) + s(0) = s(s(0))

. Are you willing to conclude that addition is commutative?

0+Y =Y
s(X ) + Y = s(X + Y )
X +Y =Y +X

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Applications
I Functional equivalence of two chips

I Verification of hard- and software

I Year 2000 problem

I Eliminating redundancies in group communication systems

I Designing the layout of yellow pages

I Natural language processing

I Cognitive Robotics

I Semantic web (description logics)

I Law

I Optimization Problems

I Police Investigations

Logic is Everywhere

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Some Background Literature
I L. Chang and R.C.T. Lee: Symbolic Logic and Mechanical Theorem Proving
Academic Press, New York (1973)

I M. Fitting: First–Order Logic and Automated Theorem Proving

Springer Verlag. Berlin, second edition (1996)

I J. Gallier:
Logic for Computer Science: Foundations of Automated Theorem Proving
Harper and Row. New York (1986)

I S. Hölldobler: Logik und Logikprogrammierung

Synchron Publishers GmbH, Heidelberg (2009)

I D. Poole and A. Mackworth and R. Goebel:

Computational Intelligence: A Logical Approach
Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford (1998)

I S. Russell and P. Norvig: Artificial Intelligence

Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs (1995)

I U. Schöning: Logik für Informatiker

Spektrum Akademischer Verlag (1995)

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Module Foundations

I Two lectures

. Logic
. Science of Computational Logic

I Logic is offered from now until the end of November

I Science of Computational Logic is offered from beginning of December

until end of the lecturing period.

I Exact dates will be announced later

I Exams

. Logic: written exam (middle of Dec)

. Science of Computational Logic: oral exam (beginning of Feb)

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Logic

I Agenda

. Introduction
. Propositional Logic
. First Order Logic

I Exercises

. Exercises are announced each week

. We expect students to discuss their solutions

I Tests

. There will be a written test

. 10% of the final mark will be given based on performance in the test

I See our web pages for more detail

I Ask questions as soon as they arise, anywhere and at anytime

I Don’t accept a situation, where you do not understand everything

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Finally

I The Knowledge Representation and Reasoning group will organize a weekly

open house (Wednesday, 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm in ABP 2008)
. All MCL students are welcome to join

I In case you experience any problems whatsoever please contact us

immediately; don’t wait; problems will usually not go away, we will just have
less time to solve them

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