An information-based theory of conditionals (Q1861134)

The author makes a formal investigation of an interesting interface between the worlds of Artificial Intelligence, the formal semantics of the conditional ``if-then'' and the logic of subjective conditionals, all three in an information-theory context. It is assumed that both schema-based inference and conditional semantics are based on F. I. Dretske's concept of information flow and the notion of a constraint in situation semantics due to J. Barwise and J. Perry. The author presents an alternative logic of situations, information flow and subjective conditionals based on a three-valued partial logic. Several useful examples are discussed in detail as well as some paradoxes of conditional implication.