A refutation mechanism is introduced into logic programming, dual to the usual proof mechanism; then negation is treated via refutation. A four-valued logic is appropriate for the semantics: true, false, neither, both. Inconsistent programs are allowed, but inconsistencies remain localized. The four-valued logic is a well-known one, due to Belnap, and is the simplest example of Ginsberg’s bilat...

Vision and abstraction: an empirical refutation of Nico Orlandi’s non-cognitivism Christopher Mole & Jiaying Zhao To cite this article: Christopher Mole & Jiaying Zhao (2016) Vision and abstraction: an empirical refutation of Nico Orlandi’s non-cognitivism, Philosophical Psychology, 29:3, 365-373, DOI: 10.1080/09515089.2015.1081163 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09515089.201...

We refute Elaine Scarry’s contentions, published in the New York Review of Books in September and October 2000, that external electromagnetic fields can have been major contributors to the accidents to TWA Flight 800 and Swissair Flight 111. The refutation for TWA 800 cites NASA research done in support of the investigation. The refutation for Swissair 111 is new here.

Dependency Quantified Boolean Formulas (DQBF) extend QBF with Henkin quantifiers, which allow for non-linear dependencies between the quantified variables. This extension is useful in verification problems for incomplete designs, such as the partial equivalence checking (PEC) problem, where a partial circuit, with some parts left open as “black boxes”, is compared against a full circuit. The PE...

This paper discusses the topic of the minimum width of a regular resolution refutation of a set of clauses. The main result shows that there are examples having small regular resolution refutations, for which any regular refutation must contain a large clause. This forms a contrast with corresponding results for general resolution refutations.

Resolution has not been an eeective tool for deciding satissability of propositional CNF formulas, due to explosion of the search space, particularly when the formula is satissable. A new pruning method is described, which is designed to eliminate certain refutation attempts that cannot succeed. The method exploits the concept of \autarky", which was introduced by Monien and Speckenmeyer. New f...

Modern Idealism, if it asserts any general conclusion about the universe at all, asserts that it is spiritual. There are two points about this assertion to which I wish to call attention. These points are that, whatever be its exact meaning, it is certainly meant to assert (1) that the universe is very different indeed from what it seems, and (2) that it has quite a large number of properties w...

Model checking has won some industrial acceptance in debugging designs. Theorem proving and formal verification are less popular. An approach built around automated abstractions could integrate theorem proving with model checking in an acceptable way and provide a bridge between refutation and verification.