Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PROCESS REASONING (Reasoning about processes: a logico-philosophical investigation)
Berichtszeitraum: 2021-01-01 bis 2022-12-31
The overall aim of this project was to develop a formal framework for representing processes and reasoning about them in an indeterministic setting that is philosophically well-informed and which ties in with the study of tense and aspect in linguistics as well as with logics of action in computer science. Central to the project was the utilisation of the transition approach developed by the researcher in her PhD thesis and subsequent work. The project pursued three objectives: (1) to provide a formal conceptualisation of processes and their modal-temporal properties in terms of transitions, (2) to implement the idea in a modal-temporal logic, and (3) to explore potential applications of the account to pertinent themes in linguistics and computer science. Building on the transition approach, the project provided a novel foundation for processes, shedding new light on our thinking about their dynamics.
The second objective was based on formal logic, especially modal-temporal logic. Its mathematical foundation was the transition semantics for branching time developed by the researcher. Aiming at a logical framework for reasoning about processes and their interrelation with modality and time, the researcher enriched the models of transition semantics with the formal representation of processes and experimented with different formal languages for describing the models. This paves the way for a meta-logical investigation, including the development of a proof system.
The third objective focused on potential applications of the resulting system in linguistics and computer science. Considerations concerning the intricacies of tense and aspect in English played a prominent role in the development of the conceptual and logical apparatus. At the centre of these investigations was the so-called imperfective paradox: “I was baking a cake” does not imply “I baked a cake”; something may intervene. The researcher also published a paper which highlights the merits of the dynamic nature of the transition approach in the analysis of the modal-temporal properties of conditional sentences. On the computer science side, she evaluated her account against prevailing logics used for modelling interaction processes in computer science, bringing out the merits of her framework in that field.
The project results were disseminated through presentations at research seminars and international workshops and conferences and a publication in a highly-ranked interdisciplinary journal. The paper “What If, and When? Conditionals, Tense, and Branching Time” is openly accessible at Linguistics and Philosophy via this link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10988-022-09375-w. Halfway through the project, the researcher organised a two-day international online workshop “Formal Accounts of Powers, Processes, and Change”, which brought together researchers interested in the formal aspects of a dynamic reality.
The novel approach pursued in the present project has a formal and strongly technical character. This allows for a precise formulation of the ideas and opens the door for applications in linguistics and computer science. The framework is tailored towards a solution to the imperfective paradox in linguistics, and it is suitable for representing interaction processes in computer science, where it gains practical relevance in modelling artificial agents capable of planning locally and responding flexibly to interventions. The potential users of the project results are philosophers and scientists working in these neighbouring disciplines. The results are expected to open up new ground in these areas and will hopefully trigger future research on the topic of change.