If A, Then B

Even if after If then conditionals

This study evaluates how people represent “even if” conditionals when they have to integrate them with previous “if then” conditionals and also make an inference. The terms in the premises were ordered to facilitate their integration (Figure 1: If A then B; Even if B C). In half the cases, the “even if” conditional was expressed with a negation instead of an affirmation (If A then B; Even if no...

A Compositional Semantics for 'If Then' Conditionals

This paper presents the first compositional semantics for if then conditionals. The semantics of each element are first examined separately. The meaning of if is modeled according to a possible worlds semantics. The particle then is analyzed as an anaphoric word that places its focused element inside the context settled by a previous element. Their meanings are subsequently combined in order to...

If intelligence is uncomputable , then ... *

I want to propose an abstract model of the human mind that is, to the human mind, a bit like what a Euclidean rectangle is to a farmer’s field. I want to show why intelligence, in this model, requires a particular kind of uncomputability – the kind that Gold [2] has called computability in the limit. This observation has implications for Computer Science and Cognitive Science if my abstract mod...

Continuous If-Then Statements Are Computable

In many practical situations, we must compute the value of an if-then expression f(x) defined as “if c(x) ≥ 0 then f+(x) else f−(x)”, where f+(x), f−(x), and c(x) are computable functions. The value f(x) cannot be computed directly, since in general, it is not possible to check whether a given real number c(x) is non-negative or non-positive. Similarly, it is not possible to compute the value f...

Too many pedodontists? If so, what then?