First-Order Logic

Outline
• First-order logic
– Properties, relations, functions, quantifiers, …
– Terms, sentences, axioms, theories, proofs, …
• Extensions to first-order logic
• Logical agents
– Reflex agents
– Representing change: situation calculus, frame problem
– Preferences on actions
– Goal-based agents
 First-order logic
• First-order logic (FOL) models the world in terms of
– Objects, which are things with individual identities
– Properties of objects that distinguish them from other objects
– Relations that hold among sets of objects
– Functions, which are a subset of relations where there is only one
“value” for any given “input”
• Examples:
– Objects: Students, lectures, companies, cars ...
– Relations: Brother-of, bigger-than, outside, part-of, has-color,
occurs-after, owns, visits, precedes, ...
– Properties: blue, oval, even, large, ...
– Functions: father-of, best-friend, second-half, one-more-than ...
 User provides

• Constant symbols, which represent individuals in the world

– Mary
–3
– Green
• Function symbols, which map individuals to individuals
– father-of(Mary) = John
– color-of(Sky) = Blue
• Predicate symbols, which map individuals to truth values
– greater(5,3)
– green(Grass)
– color(Grass, Green)
 FOL Provides
• Variable symbols
– E.g., x, y, foo
• Connectives
– Same as in PL: not (), and (), or (), implies (), if
and only if (biconditional )
• Quantifiers
– Universal x or (Ax)
– Existential x or (Ex)
 Sentences are built from terms and atoms

• A term (denoting a real-world individual) is a constant symbol, a

variable symbol, or an n-place function of n terms.
x and f(x1, ..., xn) are terms, where each xi is a term.
A term with no variables is a ground term
• An atomic sentence (which has value true or false) is an n-place
predicate of n terms
• A complex sentence is formed from atomic sentences connected
by the logical connectives:
P, PQ, PQ, PQ, PQ where P and Q are sentences
• A quantified sentence adds quantifiers  and 
• A well-formed formula (wff) is a sentence containing no “free”
variables. That is, all variables are “bound” by universal or
existential quantifiers.
(x)P(x,y) has x bound as a universally quantified variable, but y is free.
 Quantifiers
• Universal quantification
– (x)P(x) means that P holds for all values of x in the
domain associated with that variable
– E.g., (x) dolphin(x)  mammal(x)
• Existential quantification
– ( x)P(x) means that P holds for some value of x in the
domain associated with that variable
– E.g., ( x) mammal(x)  lays-eggs(x)
– Permits one to make a statement about some object
without naming it
 Quantifiers
• Universal quantifiers are often used with “implies” to form “rules”:
(x) student(x)  smart(x) means “All students are smart”
• Universal quantification is rarely used to make blanket statements
about every individual in the world:
(x)student(x)smart(x) means “Everyone in the world is a student and is smart”
• Existential quantifiers are usually used with “and” to specify a list of
properties about an individual:
(x) student(x)  smart(x) means “There is a student who is smart”
• A common mistake is to represent this English sentence as the FOL
sentence:
(x) student(x)  smart(x)
– But what happens when there is a person who is not a student?
 Quantifier Scope
• Switching the order of universal quantifiers does not change
the meaning:
– (x)(y)P(x,y) ↔ (y)(x) P(x,y)
• Similarly, you can switch the order of existential
quantifiers:
– (x)(y)P(x,y) ↔ (y)(x) P(x,y)
• Switching the order of universals and existentials does
change meaning:
– Everyone likes someone: (x)(y) likes(x,y)
– Someone is liked by everyone: (y)(x) likes(x,y)
Connections between All and Exists

We can relate sentences involving  and 

using De Morgan’s laws:
(x) P(x) ↔ (x) P(x)
(x) P ↔ (x) P(x)
(x) P(x) ↔  (x) P(x)
(x) P(x) ↔ (x) P(x)
 Quantified inference rules
• Universal instantiation
– x P(x)  P(A)
• Universal generalization
– P(A)  P(B) …  x P(x)
• Existential instantiation
– x P(x) P(F)  skolem constant F
• Existential generalization
– P(A)  x P(x)
 Universal instantiation
(a.k.a. universal elimination)
• If (x) P(x) is true, then P(C) is true, where C is any
constant in the domain of x
• Example:
(x) eats(Ziggy, x)  eats(Ziggy, IceCream)
• The variable symbol can be replaced by any ground term,
i.e., any constant symbol or function symbol applied to
ground terms only
 Existential instantiation
(a.k.a. existential elimination)
• From (x) P(x) infer P(c)
• Example:
– (x) eats(Ziggy, x)  eats(Ziggy, Stuff)
• Note that the variable is replaced by a brand-new constant
not occurring in this or any other sentence in the KB
• Also known as skolemization; constant is a skolem
constant
• In other words, we don’t want to accidentally draw other
inferences about it by introducing the constant
• Convenient to use this to reason about the unknown object,
rather than constantly manipulating the existential quantifier
 Existential generalization
(a.k.a. existential introduction)
• If P(c) is true, then (x) P(x) is inferred.
• Example
eats(Ziggy, IceCream)  (x) eats(Ziggy, x)
• All instances of the given constant symbol are replaced by
the new variable symbol
• Note that the variable symbol cannot already exist
anywhere in the expression
 Translating English to FOL
Every gardener likes the sun.
x gardener(x)  likes(x,Sun)
You can fool some of the people all of the time.
x t person(x) time(t)  can-fool(x,t)
You can fool all of the people some of the time.
x t (person(x)  time(t) can-fool(x,t))
x (person(x)  t (time(t) can-fool(x,t)))
Equivalent
All purple mushrooms are poisonous.
x (mushroom(x)  purple(x))  poisonous(x)
No purple mushroom is poisonous.
x purple(x)  mushroom(x)  poisonous(x)
x (mushroom(x)  purple(x))  poisonous(x) Equivalent
There are exactly two purple mushrooms.
x y mushroom(x)  purple(x)  mushroom(y)  purple(y) ^ (x=y)  z
(mushroom(z)  purple(z))  ((x=z)  (y=z))
Clinton is not tall.
tall(Clinton)
X is above Y iff X is on directly on top of Y or there is a pile of one or more other
objects directly on top of one another starting with X and ending with Y.
x y above(x,y) ↔ (on(x,y)  z (on(x,z)  above(z,y)))