English

A Generalized Probabilistic Version of Modus Ponens

Probability 2017-05-02 v1

Abstract

Modus ponens (\emph{from AA and "if AA then CC" infer CC}, short: MP) is one of the most basic inference rules. The probabilistic MP allows for managing uncertainty by transmitting assigned uncertainties from the premises to the conclusion (i.e., from P(A)P(A) and P(CA)P(C|A) infer P(C)P(C)). In this paper, we generalize the probabilistic MP by replacing AA by the conditional event AHA|H. The resulting inference rule involves iterated conditionals (formalized by conditional random quantities) and propagates previsions from the premises to the conclusion. Interestingly, the propagation rules for the lower and the upper bounds on the conclusion of the generalized probabilistic MP coincide with the respective bounds on the conclusion for the (non-nested) probabilistic MP.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1705.00385,
  title  = {A Generalized Probabilistic Version of Modus Ponens},
  author = {Giuseppe Sanfilippo and Niki Pfeifer and Angelo Gilio},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1705.00385},
  year   = {2017}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T19:32:25.301Z