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A Logic of Questions and Answers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

David Harrah*
Affiliation:
University of California, Riverside, Calif

Abstract

A logic of questions and answers exists within the logic of statements, if we make the following identifications (roughly): “Whether” questions are identified with true exclusive disjunctions, and “which” questions are identified with true existential quantifications. The question-and-answer process is interpreted as an information-matching game. The question mark is not needed except as a device of abbreviation. Complete and partial answers can be distinguished and various relations of relevance, independence, and resolution defined.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1961

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