A logical and algebraic treatment of conditional probability (Q1766925): Difference between revisions

The authors give a logical treatment of conditionals: to deal with the case when the conditioning event has zero probability, they develop a suitable logic over a nonstandard real interval, equipped with an idempotent endomorphism capturing the standard part function. The overall construction is reminiscent of \textit{P. Hájek}'s approach to probability in his monograph [Metamathematics of fuzzy logic (Trends in Logic -- Studia Logica Library 4) Dordrecht: Kluwer (1998; Zbl 0937.03030)]. As a main result, the authors prove that the coherence of an assessment of conditional probabilities is equivalent to the coherence of a suitably defined theory over the logic defined in the present paper. For a different treatment of conditionals, along the lines of Carathéodory-von Neumann algebraic probability theory, see the handbook chapter ``Probability on MV-algebras'' by \textit{B. Riečan} and the present reviewer [in: E. Pap (ed.), Handbook of measure theory, Vol. II. Amsterdam: North Holland, 869--909 (2002; Zbl 1017.28002)]. In any case, much work must be done to achieve better decision procedures for the coherence of conditional probability assessments.