English

Drawing Sound Conclusions from Unsound Premises

Logic in Computer Science 2011-09-06 v1

Abstract

Given sets Φ1={ϕ11,...,ϕ1u(1)},...,Φz={ϕz1,...,ϕzu(z)}\Phi_1=\{\phi_{11},...,\phi_{1u(1)}\}, ...,\Phi_{z}=\{\phi_{z1},...,\phi_{zu(z)}\} of boolean formulas, a formula ω\omega follows from the conjunction Φi=ϕij\bigwedge\Phi_i= \bigwedge \phi_{ij} iff ¬ωi=1zΦi\neg \omega\wedge \bigwedge_{i=1}^z \Phi_i is unsatisfiable. Now assume that, given integers 0ei<u(i)0\leq e_i < u(i), we must check if ¬ωi=1zΦi\neg \omega\wedge \bigwedge_{i=1}^z \Phi'_i remains unsatisfiable, where ΦiΦi\Phi'_i\subseteq \Phi_i is obtained by deleting ei\,\,e_{i} arbitrarily chosen formulas of Φi\Phi_i, for each i=1,...,z.i=1,...,z. Intuitively, does ω\omega {\it stably} follow, after removing eie_i random formulas from each Φi\Phi_i? We construct a quadratic reduction of this problem to the consequence problem in infinite-valued \luk\ logic \L_\infty. In this way we obtain a self-contained proof that the \L_\infty-consequence problem is coNP-complete.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1109.0915,
  title  = {Drawing Sound Conclusions from Unsound Premises},
  author = {Daniele Mundici and Claudia Picardi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1109.0915},
  year   = {2011}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T18:59:53.198Z