Title: First-Order Logic (FOL) aka. predicate calculus
1First-Order Logic (FOL)aka. predicate calculus
2First-Order Logic (FOL) Syntax
- User defines these primitives
- Constant symbols (i.e., the "individuals" in the
world) E.g., Mary, 3 - Function symbols (mapping individuals to
individuals) E.g., father-of(Mary) John,
color-of(Sky) Blue - Predicate symbols (mapping from individuals to
truth values) E.g., greater(5,3), green(Grass),
color(Grass, Green)
3First-Order Logic (FOL) Syntax
- FOL supplies these primitives
- Variable symbols. E.g., x,y
- Connectives. Same as in PL not (), and (), or
(v), implies (gt), if and only if (ltgt) - Quantifiers Universal (A) and Existential (E)
4Quantifiers
- Universal quantification.
- E.g., (Ax) dolphin(x) gt mammal(x)
- Existential quantification.
- E.g., (Ex) mammal(x) lays-eggs(x)
- Universal quantifiers are usually used with
"implies" to form "if-then rules." - E.g., (Ax) cs-student(x) gt smart(x) means "All
cs students are smart." - You rarely use universal quantification to make
blanket statements about every individual in the
world (Ax)cs-student(x) smart(x) meaning that
everyone in the world is a cs student and is
smart.
5Quantifiers
- Existential quantifiers are usually used with
"and" to specify a list of properties or facts
about an individual. - E.g., (Ex) cs-student(x) smart(x) means "there
is a cs student who is smart." - A common mistake is to represent this English
sentence as the FOL sentence - (Ex) cs-student(x) gt smart(x)
6First-Order Logic (FOL) Syntax
- Sentences are built up of terms and atoms
- A term (denoting a real-world object) is a
constant symbol, a variable symbol, or a function
e.g. left-leg-of ( ). For example, x and f(x1,
..., xn) are terms, where each xi is a term. - An atom (which has value true or false) is either
an n-place predicate of n terms, or, if P and Q
are atoms, then P, P V Q, P Q, P gt Q, P ltgt Q
are atoms - A sentence is an atom, or, if P is a sentence and
x is a variable, then (Ax)P and (Ex)P are
sentences - A well-formed formula (wff) is a sentence
containing no "free" variables. I.e., all
variables are "bound" by universal or existential
quantifiers. - E.g., (Ax)P(x,y) has x bound as a universally
quantified variable, but y is free.
7Translating English to FOL
- Every gardener likes the sun.(Ax) gardener(x) gt
likes(x,Sun) - You can fool some of the people all of the
time.(Ex)(At) (person(x) time(t)) gt
can-fool(x,t) - You can fool all of the people some of the
time.(Ax)(Et) (person(x) time(t) gt
can-fool(x,t) - All purple mushrooms are poisonous.(Ax)
(mushroom(x) purple(x)) gt poisonous(x)
8Translating English to FOL
- No purple mushroom is poisonous.(Ex) purple(x)
mushroom(x) poisonous(x) or,
equivalently,(Ax) (mushroom(x) purple(x)) gt
poisonous(x) - Deb is not tall.tall(Deb)
- X is above Y if X is on directly on top of Y or
else there is a pile of one or more other objects
directly on top of one another starting with X
and ending with Y.(Ax)(Ay) above(x,y) ltgt
(on(x,y) v (Ez) (on(x,z) above(z,y)))
9Inference Rules for FOL
- Inference rules for PL apply to FOL as well. For
example, Modus Ponens, And-Introduction,
And-Elimination, etc. - New sound inference rules for use with
quantifiers - Universal EliminationIf (Ax)P(x) is true, then
P(c) is true, where c is a constant in the domain
of x. For example, from (Ax)eats(Ziggy, x) we can
infer 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 IntroductionIf P(c) is true, then
(Ex)P(x) is inferred. - For example, from eats(Ziggy, IceCream) we can
infer (Ex)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. - Existential EliminationFrom (Ex)P(x) infer P(c).
- For example, from (Ex)eats(Ziggy, x) infer
eats(Ziggy, Cheese). - Note that the variable is replaced by a brand new
constant that does not occur in this or any other
sentence in the Knowledge Base. In other words,
we don't want to accidentally draw other
inferences about it by introducing the constant.
All we know is there must be some constant that
makes this true, so we can introduce a brand new
one to stand in for that (unknown) constant.
10Inference Rules for FOL
- Inference rules for PL apply to FOL as well. For
example, Modus Ponens, And-Introduction,
And-Elimination, etc. - Generalized Modus Ponens (GMP)
- Combines And-Introduction, Universal-Elimination,
and Modus Ponens - E.g. from P(c), Q(c), and (Ax)(P(x) Q(x)) gt
R(x), derive R(c) - A substitution list Theta v1/t1, v2/t2, ...,
vn/tn means to replace all occurrences of
variable symbol vi by term ti. - Substitutions are made in left-to-right order in
the list. - E.g. subst(x/IceCream, y/Ziggy, eats(y,x))
eats(Ziggy, IceCream)
11Incompleteness of the generalized modus ponens
inference rule
?x P(x) gt Q(x) ?x ?P(x) gt Q(x) ?x Q(x) gt
S(x) ?x R(x) gt S(x)
? Cannot be converted to Horn
Want to conclude S(A)
S(A) is true if Q(A) or R(A) is true, and one of
those must be true because either P(A) or ?P(A)
12Generalized Modus Ponens in Horn FOL
- Generalized Modus Ponens (GMP) is complete for
KBs containing only Horn clauses - A Horn clause is a sentence of the form(Ax)
(P1(x) P2(x) ... Pn(x)) gt Q(x)where there
are 0 or more Pi's, and the Pi's and Q are
positive (i.e., un-negated) literals - For example, P(a) v Q(a) is a sentence in FOL but
is not a Horn clause.
13Forward Chaining
- Natural deduction using GMP is complete for KBs
containing only Horn clauses. - Proofs start with the given axioms in KB,
deriving new sentences using GMP until the
goal/query sentence is derived. - This defines a forward chaining inference
procedure because it moves "forward" from the KB
to the goal.
14Example of forward chaining
- Example KB All cats like fish, cats eat
everything they like, and Ziggy is a cat. In FOL,
KB - (Ax) cat(x) gt likes(x, Fish)
- (Ax)(Ay) (cat(x) likes(x,y)) gt eats(x,y)
- cat(Ziggy)
- Goal query Does Ziggy eat fish?
- Proof Data-driven
- Use GMP with (1) and (3) to derive 4.
likes(Ziggy, Fish) - Use GMP with (3), (4) and (2) to derive
eats(Ziggy, Fish) - So, Yes, Ziggy eats fish.
15Backward Chaining
- Natural deduction using GMP is complete for KBs
containing only Horn clauses. - Proofs start with the goal query, find
implications that would allow you to prove it,
and then prove each of the antecedents in the
implication, continuing to work "backwards" until
we get to the axioms, which we know are true.
16Backward chaining
- Example Does Ziggy eat fish?
- To prove eats(Ziggy, Fish), first see if this is
known from one of the axioms directly. Here it is
not known, so see if there is a Horn clause that
has the consequent (i.e., right-hand side) of the
implication matching the goal. - Proof Goal Driven
- Goal matches RHS of Horn clause (2), so try and
prove new sub-goals cat(Ziggy) and likes(Ziggy,
Fish) that correspond to the LHS of (2) - cat(Ziggy) matches axiom (3), so we've "solved"
that sub-goal - likes(Ziggy, Fish) matches the RHS of (1), so try
and prove cat(Ziggy) - cat(Ziggy) matches (as it did earlier) axiom (3),
so we've solved this sub-goal - There are no unsolved sub-goals, so we're done.
Yes, Ziggy eats fish.