28. April 2010 13:49
Modelling intelligent interaction: the social face of logic
The popular idea is that reasoned, rational thinking blossoms with a lone scientist thinking rigorously about the universe. Yet surprisingly, rationality is more often about intelligent interaction.
“Dialogue is at the heart of logic,” explains Dutch logician and philosopher Professor Johan van Benthem. “Think about Socratic dialogue; think about the history of logic, born out of a need to discern qualitative differences between arguments used in practical juridical settings.”
Recently the social aspect of intelligence has taken centre stage in disciplines as diverse as psychology, economics, cognitive science, informatics, philosophy and game theory. It seems that logic will be able to reveal the fundamental characteristics of intelligent interaction, and produce coherence between these disciplines.
The enthusiasm generated by this in European academic circles prompted the European Science Foundation (ESF) to support this interdisciplinary field through the EUROCORES research programme LogICCC. The three C’s refer to the key-concepts of computation, communication and cognition. In each project at least three different European groups of scientists cooperate. These groups are funded by their respective national institutions, with an additional budget provided through the ESF for scientific coordination and networking through funding interdisciplinary workshops and travel. EUROCORES focuses on fostering fruitful new coalitions between researchers.
“And it works,” declared Swedish cognitive scientist Peter Gärdenfors at the conference Modelling Interaction, Dialog, Social Choice and Vagueness, held in Amsterdam in March 2010, the mid-term review of the LogICCC programme. In his current research professor Gärdenfors, who was trained as mathematician, deals with vague language. According to Gärdenfors, vagueness is a design feature of any natural language and is therefore at odds with the traditional ideal of logic which aims for precision. His working hypothesis is that language is vague for reasons of cognitive economy: “Most of the time, vague words do their job well enough. That is: speaker and listener understand each other, their minds meet, even though more precise words could be used.”
The model Gärdenfors is developing can explain why fuzzy concepts make learning more efficient - provided that strong prototypes are put firmly in place. In his work, Gärdenfors makes use of mathematics, philosophy of language, prototype theory and empirical data provided by developmental psychology, showing the truly interdisciplinary character of LogICC: “I already knew some of the people I currently work with, but in the maelstrom of daily scientific life I probably would not have contacted them for a joined project. Nonetheless our collaboration feels very natural. To talk with people who are slightly off your own scientific beaten track is very productive for generating new ideas.”
Half way through the LogICCC programme, the enthusiasm of its founding father Van Benthem is still undiminished. “New alliances are blossoming. New concepts, like ‘dependence’, are gaining ground”, he says contently. “I have the feeling this is the next round in logic. I can just feel it happening.”
