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UK funding (308 229 £) : De l’épistémologie bayésienne objective à la logique inductive Ukri01/09/2012 UK Research and Innovation, Royaume Uni
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De l’épistémologie bayésienne objective à la logique inductive
| Abstract | The main aim of this project is to revive inductive logic (the logic of inference under uncertainty) by building on recent developments in epistemology (the theory of knowledge and belief).\n\nInductive logic has potential application to any area in which one needs to reason about structure, but where evidence is limited and uncertainty is rife. For example, bioinformatics requires formal methods for reasoning about biological structure in the presence of only partial knowledge of genetic function and biochemical processes; natural language processing requires formal methods for reasoning about sentence structure and meaning in the presence of statistical evidence of previously processed sentences.\n\nHowever, after intensive research in the 1950s-70s, the inductive logic programme faced important philosophical critiques from which it never fully recovered. Thus, while there are a few small pockets of researchers still working on logics for reasoning under uncertainty, the inductive logic programme is widely held to have failed. \n\nIn the 1980s-90s, new methods for handling uncertainty were developed - probabilistic network methods - which are computational rather than logical techniques. These new methods filled the need for computationally feasible tools for manipulating and reasoning with probabilities, and research on inductive logic remained on the sidelines. However, while probabilistic networks can handle uncertainty in an elegant way, they were not developed for reasoning about structure at the same time. There are attempts to extend the probabilistic network formalism to cope with richer structure, but these methods are complex and disparate and no clear contender has emerged.\n\nNow is the right time to revive the inductive logic programme. This is for three reasons. First, the need for inductive logic remains: there is still a need throughout the sciences to reason about structure under uncertainty and inductive logic is the natural formalism for fulfilling that need. Second, recent work in epistemology has offered the possibility of developing a new approach to inductive logic that may survive the traditional critique of inductive logic. In particular, ideas emerging from probabilistic epistemology may offer a coherent approach to inductive logic (see, e.g., 'In defence of objective Bayesianism', Oxford University Press 2010). Third, recent work in forging connections between probabilistic logics and probabilistic networks has led to the possibility of developing computationally tractable methods for performing calculations in inducitve logic (see, e.g., 'Probabilistic logics and probabilistic networks', Springer 2010).\n\nThis project will:\n(i) develop the formal apparatus of inductive logic as underpinned by the emerging probabilistic epistemology,\n(ii) investigate whether the resulting logic does indeed survive the traditional philosophical critiques of inductive logic, and \n(iii) develop computational methods, based on probabilistic networks, for performing inference in the resulting inductive logic.\n\n\n |
| Category | Research Grant |
| Reference | AH/I022957/1 |
| Status | Closed |
| Funded period start | 01/09/2012 |
| Funded period end | 31/08/2015 |
| Funded value | £308 229,00 |
| Source | https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FI022957%2F1 |
Participating Organisations
| University of Kent |
Cette annonce se réfère à une date antérieure et ne reflète pas nécessairement l’état actuel. L’état actuel est présenté à la page suivante : University of Kent, Canterbury, Royaume Uni.