Descriptor Revision: Belief Change through Direct Choice

Description

This book provides a critical examination of how the choice of what to believe is represented in the standard model of belief change. In particular the use of possible worlds and infinite remainders as objects of choice is critically examined. Descriptors are introduced as a versatile tool for expressing the success conditions of belief change, addressing both local and global descriptor revision. The book presents dynamic descriptors such as Ramsey descriptors that convey how an agent’s beliefs tend to be changed in response to different inputs. It also explores sentential revision and demonstrates how local and global operations of revision by a sentence can be derived as a special case of descriptor revision. Lastly, the book examines revocation, a generalization of contraction in which a specified sentence is removed in a process that may possibly also involve the addition of some new information to the belief set. Front Matter ....Pages i-xviii Front Matter ....Pages 1-1 The State of the Art (Sven Ove Hansson)....Pages 3-16 Inside the Black Box (Sven Ove Hansson)....Pages 17-26 Questionable Patterns of Change (Sven Ove Hansson)....Pages 27-42 Front Matter ....Pages 43-43 Putting the Building-Blocks Together (Sven Ove Hansson)....Pages 45-61 Local Descriptor Revision (Sven Ove Hansson)....Pages 63-84 Global Descriptor Revision (Sven Ove Hansson)....Pages 85-93 Dynamic Descriptors (Sven Ove Hansson)....Pages 95-114 Front Matter ....Pages 115-115 Sentential Revision (Sven Ove Hansson)....Pages 117-131 Revocation (Sven Ove Hansson)....Pages 133-149 Contraction (Sven Ove Hansson)....Pages 151-162 Front Matter ....Pages 163-163 Looking Back – and Ahead (Sven Ove Hansson)....Pages 165-167 Back Matter ....Pages 169-239