Knowledge and communication: a first-order theory

  • Authors:
  • Ernest Davis

  • Affiliations:
  • Courant Institute, New York University, New York, NY

  • Venue:
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Year:
  • 2005

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Abstract

This paper presents a theory of informative communications among agents that allows a speaker to communicate to a hearer truths about the state of the world; the occurrence of events, including other communicative acts; and the knowledge states of any agent--speaker, hearer, or third parties--any of these in the past, present, or future--and any logical combination of these, including formulas with quantifiers. We prove that this theory is consistent, and compatible with a wide range of physical theories. We examine how the theory avoids two potential paradoxes, and discuss how these paradoxes may pose a danger when this theory are extended.