Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!cornell!batcomputer!dailey
From: dailey@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (John H. Dailey)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Modal Logic and AI -- References Needed
Message-ID: <4366@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>
Date: 10 Apr 88 15:17:19 GMT
References: <1988Feb27.021115.11206@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu> <480@usl>
Reply-To: dailey@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu (John H. Dailey)
Distribution: na
Organization: Cornell Theory Center, Cornell University, Ithaca NY
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  Though it is somewhat mathematically sophisticated, I think that the best
recent book on modal logic is: Modal Logic and Classical Logic, by Johan van
Benthem, Bibliopolis, 1983. A mathematically easier text is Hughes and 
Cresswell's Companion to Modal Logic -- I don't have it here for the publishing
data, but it came out only a couple of years ago. Another, more specialized book
is: The Unprovability of Consistency, by George Boolos, Cambridge U. Press. 
 For a more philosophical look at possible worlds you should read: Inquiry, by
Robert Stalnaker, MIT Press, 1984. Though none of these books deal with AI, they
are some of the best books recently done on modal logic. For work closer to AI
(actually, natural language processing) you might want to look at Montague
Semantics, which incorporates a possible worlds approach (see also Gallin's
Intensional Mathematics--(North Holland?) which gives some completeness results
for Montague systems). For criticisms of this approach see, e.g. the first
chapter of Topics in the Syntax and Semantics of Infinitives and Gerunds,
by Gennaro Chierchia, Ph.D. dissertation, UMass, Amherst.
  The list of articles on modal logic is endless, especially for natural
language semantics, but the above books should give you a good feel for the
subject.

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|				      John H. Dailey                         |
|				      Center for Applied Math.               |
|				      Cornell U.                             |
|				      Ithaca, N.Y. 14853                     |
|                            dailey@CRNLCAM (Bitnet)                         |
|			     dailey@amvax.tn.cornell.edu   (ARPANET)         |
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