Reasoning about knowledge in philosophy: the paradigm of epistemic logic

• Authors: Jaakko Hintikka
• Venue: TARK '86 Proceedings of the 1986 conference on Theoretical aspects of reasoning about knowledge
• Year: 1986

Theories of knowledge representation and reasoning about knowledge in philosophy are considered from the vantage point of epistemic logic. This logic is primarily a logic of knowing that, and its semantics can be considered an explication of the well-known idea that "information means elimination of uncertainty". A number of other theories are discussed as further developments of epistemic logic. They include: (1) theory of questions and answers. (2) interplay of quantifiers and epistemic concepts. (3) representations of other kinds of knowledge than knowing that, especially those expressed by knows + an indirect wh-question and by knows + direct grammatical object. (4) the problem of cross-identification; the coexistence of different cross-identification methods. (5) the problem of logical omniscience. (6) informational independence in epistemic logic and its manifestations, including the de dicto - de re contrast and wh-questions with outside quantifiers. (7) an interrogative model of inquiry and its applications, especially the conceptualization of tacit knowledge and of range of attention.