A quantum computational semantics for epistemic logical operators. Part II: semantics

BELTRAMETTI E;DALLA CHIARA ML;GIUNTINI, ROBERTO;LEPORINI R;SERGIOLI, GIUSEPPE

2014-01-01

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Abstract

By using the abstract structures investigated in the first Part of this article, we develop a semantics for an epistemic language, which expresses sentences like "Alice knows that Bob does not understand that π is irrational". One is dealing with a holistic form of quantum computational semantics, where entanglement plays a fundamental role; thus, the meaning of a global expression determines the contextual meanings of its parts, but generally not the other way around. The epistemic situations represented in this semantics seem to reflect some characteristic limitations of the real processes of acquiring information. Since knowledge is not generally closed under logical consequence, the unpleasant phenomenon of logical omniscience is here avoided