Skip to main content
Log in

A logic of intentions and beliefs

  • Published:
Journal of Philosophical Logic Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Intentions are an important concept in Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science. We present a formal theory of intentions and beliefs based on Discourse Representation Theory that captures many of their important logical properties. Unlike possible worlds approaches, this theory does not assume that agents are perfect reasoners, and gives a realistic view of their internal architecture; unlike most representational approaches, it has anobjective semantics, and does not rely on anad hoc labeling of the internal states of agents. We describe a minimal logic for intentions and beliefs that is sound and complete relative to our semantics. We discuss several additional axioms, and the constraints on the models that validate them.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Philip Agre and David Chapman. Pengi: An implementation of a theory of activity. InAAAI-87, pp. 268–272, 1987.

  2. James Allen and C. Raymond Perrault. Participating in dialogues: Understanding via plan deduction. InProceedings, CSCSI-78, 1978.

  3. James F. Allen and C. Raymond Perrault. Analyzing intention in utterances.Artificial Intelligence 15: 143–178, 1980.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Douglas Appelt.Planning English Sentences. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Nicholas Asher. Belief in discourse representation theory.Journal of Philosophical Logic 15: 127–189, 1986.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Nicholas Asher. A typology for attitude verbs and their anaphoric properties.Linguistics and Philosophy 10: 125–197, 1987.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Nicholas Asher. Information, interpretation, and attitudes. In P. Hanson, editor,British Columbia Studies in Cognitive Science, volume 1. University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver, Canada, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Michael E. Bratman.Intention, Plans and Practical Reason. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Brian F. Chellas.Modal Logic. Cambridge University Press, New York, NY, 1980.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Philip R. Cohen and Hector J. Levesque. Rational interaction as the basis for communication. Technical Report 433, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, April 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Philip R. Cohen and Hector J. Levesque. Intention is choice with commitment.Artificial Intelligence 42: 213–261, 1990.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Philip R. Cohen and C. Raymond Perrault. Elements of a plan-based theory of speech acts.Cognitive Science 3: 117–212, 1979.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Daniel C. Dennett.The Intentional Stance. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  14. E. A. Emerson. Temporal and modal logic. In J. van Leeuwen, editor,Handbook of Theoretical Computer Science, North-Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Ronald Fagin and Joseph Y. Halpern. Belief, awareness, and limited reasoning.Artificial Intelligence 34: 39–76, 1988.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Ronald Fagin, Joseph Y. Halpern, and Moshe Y. Vardi. A nonstandard approach to the logical omniscience problem. InProceedings of the Third Conference on Theoretical Aspects of Reasoning about Knowledge. Morgan Kaufmann Inc., 1990.

  17. Michael P. Georgeff. Planning. In J. F. Traub, editor,Annual Review of Computer Science, Vol. 2. Annual Reviews Inc., Palo Alto, CA, 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Barbara Grosz and Candace Sidner. Attentions, intentions, and discourse structure.Computational Linguistics 12(3): 175–204, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Hans Kamp. A theory of truth and semantic representation. In J. Groenendijk, T. Jansenn, and M. Stokhof, editors,Truth, Interpretation and Information, pp. 1–41. Foris Publications, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 1984.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Hans Kamp. Context, thought and communication. TheProceedings of the Aristotelian Society, New Series, LXXXV(XIII): 239–261 1984/1985.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Kurt Konolige.A Deduction Model of Belief. Morgan Kaufmann, Inc., 1986.

  22. Saul Kripke. A puzzle about belief. In A. Margalit, editor.Meaning and Use. Reidel, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 1979.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Hector Levesque. A logic of implicit and explicit belief. InAAAI-84, 1984.

  24. Diane J. Litman and James F. Allen. A plan recognition model for subdialogues in conversations.Cognitive Science 11: 163–200, 1987.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Drew V. McDermott. A temporal logic for reasoning about processes and plans.Cognitive Science 6(2): 101–155, 1982.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Barbara Hall Partee. Belief-sentences and the limits of semantics. In Stanley Peters and Esa Saarinen, editors,Processes, Beliefs, and Questions. D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 1982.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Raymond Perrault. An application of default logic to speech act theory. Technical Report 90, Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford, CA, March 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Martha E. Pollack.Inferring Domain Plans in Question Answering. PhD thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1986.

  29. Stanley J. Rosenschein. Formal theories of knowledge in AI and robotics.New Generation Computing 3(4), 1985.

  30. John R. Searle.Intentionality: An essay in the Philosophy of Mind. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1983.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Robert C. Stalnaker.Inquiry. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1984.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Singh, M.P., Asher, N.M. A logic of intentions and beliefs. J Philos Logic 22, 513–544 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01349562

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01349562

Keywords

Navigation