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What is first-order logic in Artificial Intelligence?
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To understand why we should use first-order logic (FOL), we must first understand the need for it and
background behind it.
What is propositional logic?
Propositional logic (PL) is declarative, so it guides us on how to represent information in a logical form
and draw conclusions.
We can only represent information as either true or false in propositional logic.
Disadvantages of PL
If you want to represent complicated sentences or natural language statements, PL is not sufficient.
There is very limited expressive power in PL, so we use FOL instead.
The sentence shown below cannot be represented we cannot using PL logic.
Examples
1. I love mankind. It’s the people I can’t stand!
2. Joe Root likes football.
3. I like to eat mangos.
PL is not enough to represent the sentences above, so we require powerful logic (such as FOL).
What is first-order logic (FOL)?
1. FOL is a mode of representation in Artificial Intelligence. It is an extension of PL.
2. FOL represents natural language statements in a concise way.
3. FOL is also called predicate logic. It is a powerful language used to develop information about an
object and express the relationship between objects.
4. FOL not only assumes that does the world contains facts (like PL does), but it also assumes the
following:
Objects: A, B, people, numbers, colors, wars, theories, squares, pit, etc.
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Relations: It is unary relation such as red, round, sister of, brother of, etc.
Function: father of, best friend, third inning of, end of, etc.
Parts of first-order logic
FOL also has two parts:
1. Syntax
2. Semantics
Syntax
The syntax of FOL decides which collection of symbols is a logical expression.
The basic syntactic elements of FOL are symbols. We use symbols to write statements in shorthand
notation.
Basic elements of FOL
Name Symbol
Constant 1, 6, A,W,New York, Elie, Dog...
Variables a, b, c, x, y, z...
Predicates <, >, brother, sister, father...
Equality ==
Function Sqrt, LessThan, Sin(θ)...
Quantifier ∀, ∃
Connectives ∧, ∨, ¬, ⇒, ⇔
Atomic and complex sentences in FOL
1. Atomic Sentence
This is a basic sentence of FOL formed from a predicate symbol followed by a parenthesis with a
sequence of terms.
We can represent atomic sentences as a predicate (value1, value2…., value n).
Example
1. John and Michael are colleagues → Colleagues (John, Michael)
2. German Shepherd is a dog → Dog (German Shepherd)
2. Complex sentence
Complex sentences are made by combining atomic sentences using connectives.
FOL is further divided into two parts:
Subject: the main part of the statement.
Predicate: defined as a relation that binds two atoms together.
Example
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1. Colleague (Oliver, Benjamin) ∧ Colleague (Benjamin, Oliver)
2. “x is an integer”
It has two parts;
first, x is the subject.
second, “is an integer” is called a predicate.
X is an integer
Subject Predicate
Propositional logic vs. first-order logic
Propositional logic
Propositional logic assumes that some facts exist that
can either hold or do not hold.
First-order-logic
The universe consists of multiple objects with certain
relations among them that can either hold or do not
hold.
There are other special-purpose logics that support FOL:
1. Fuzzy logic
2. Higher-order logic
3. Temporal logic
4. Probability theory
Quantifiers and their use in FOL
Quantifiers generate quantification and specify the number of specimen in the universe.
Quantifiers allow us to determine or identify the range and scope of the variable in a logical
expression.
There are two types of quantifiers:
1. Universal quantifier: for all, everyone, everything.
2. Existential quantifier: for some, at least one.
1. Universal quantifiers
Universal quantifiers specify that the statement within the range is true for everything or every
instance of a particular thing.
Universal quantifiers are denoted by a symbol (∀) that looks like an inverted A. In a universal
quantifier, we use →.
If x is a variable, then ∀x can read as:
1. For all x
2. For every x
3. For each x
Example
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Every Student Likes Educative.
X1 likes Educative
^
X2 likes
X1,X2,X3,X4,..XN
^
X3 likes coursera Student
^
Universe of Discourse
^
Xn likes Coursera
Explanation
So, in logical notation, it can be written as:
∀x student(x) → likes(x, Educative)
This can be interpreted as: There is every x where x is a student who likes Educative.
2. Existential quantifiers
Existential quantifiers are used to express that the statement within their scope is true for at least
one instance of something.
∃, which looks like an inverted E, is used to represent them. We always use AND or conjunction symbols.
If x is a variable, the existential quantifier will be ∃x:
1. For some x
2. There exists an x
3. For at least one x
Example
Some people like Football.
X1 likes football
^
X2 likes
^ X1,X2,X3,X4,X5, ... XN
People
X3 likes cricket
^
Universe of Discourse
^
Xn likes football
Explanation
So, in logical notation, it can be written as:
∃x: people(x) ∧ likes Football(x)
It can be interpreted as: There are some x where x is people who like football.
Nested quantifiers & their uses
We can use both quantifiers together, but it’s not a type of quantifier; rather, it’s an outlier category.
Nested quantifier refers to when one quantifier is within the scope of another quantifier.
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These quantifiers can be represented using the ∃x∀x signs.
Here are some examples to understand this type of quantifier.
1. ∃xy ∀x ∀y((x< 0) ∧ (y< 0) → (xy = 8))
This can be interpreted as: For every real number x and y ∈ ℝ, if x is negative and y is also negative, implies
for some values of xy must be equal to 8.
Hide Tip
In nested quantifiers, ∃x ∀y is not the same as ∀y ∃x.
R E L AT E D TA G S
ai propositional
CONTRIBUTOR
AKASH BAJWA
License: Creative Commons-Attribution-ShareAlike
4.0 (CC-BY-SA 4.0)
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