Reasoning By Analogy in Inductive Logic

Abstract

This thesis investigates ways of incorporating reasoning by analogy into Pure (Unary) Inductive Logic. We start with an analysis of similarity as distance, noting that this is the conception that has received most attention in the literature so far. Chapter 4 looks in some detail at the consequences of adopting Hamming Distance as our measure of similarity, which proves to be a strong requirement. Chapter 5 then examines various adaptations of Hamming Distance and proposes a subtle modification, further-away-ness, that generates a much larger class of solutions.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2013
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Jeffrey Paris (Supervisor) & Marcus Tressl (Supervisor)