Not Exactly
In Praise of Vagueness
Seiten
2012
Oxford University Press (Verlag)
978-0-19-964573-2 (ISBN)
Oxford University Press (Verlag)
978-0-19-964573-2 (ISBN)
Our lives are full of inexactitude. We say a person is tall or an action is just without the precision of measurement on a dial. In this engaging account, Kees van Deemter explores vagueness, cutting across areas such as language, mathematical logic, and computing. He considers why vagueness is inherent, and why it is important in how we function.
Not everything is black and white. Our daily lives are full of vagueness or fuzziness. Language is the most obvious example - for instance, when we describe someone as tall, it is as though there is a particular height beyond which a person can be considered 'tall'. Likewise the terms 'blond' or 'overweight' in common usage. We often think in discontinuous categories when we are considering something continuous.
In this book, van Deemter cuts across various disciplines in considering the nature and importance of vagueness. He looks at the principles of measurement, and how we choose categories; the vagueness lurking behind what seems at first sight crisp concepts such as that of the biological 'species'; uncertainties in grammar and the impact of vagueness on the programmes of Chomsky and Montague; vagueness and mathematical logic; computers, vague descriptions, and Natural Language Generation in AI (a new class of programs will allow computers to handle descriptions such as 'the man in the yellow shirt').
Van Deemter shows why vagueness is in various circumstances both unavoidable and useful, and how we are increasingly able to handle fuzziness in mathematical logic and computer science.
Not everything is black and white. Our daily lives are full of vagueness or fuzziness. Language is the most obvious example - for instance, when we describe someone as tall, it is as though there is a particular height beyond which a person can be considered 'tall'. Likewise the terms 'blond' or 'overweight' in common usage. We often think in discontinuous categories when we are considering something continuous.
In this book, van Deemter cuts across various disciplines in considering the nature and importance of vagueness. He looks at the principles of measurement, and how we choose categories; the vagueness lurking behind what seems at first sight crisp concepts such as that of the biological 'species'; uncertainties in grammar and the impact of vagueness on the programmes of Chomsky and Montague; vagueness and mathematical logic; computers, vague descriptions, and Natural Language Generation in AI (a new class of programs will allow computers to handle descriptions such as 'the man in the yellow shirt').
Van Deemter shows why vagueness is in various circumstances both unavoidable and useful, and how we are increasingly able to handle fuzziness in mathematical logic and computer science.
Kees van Deemter is a Reader in Computing Science at the University of Aberdeen. He works in computational linguistics, the area of artificial intelligence where computer science meets linguistics and his main areas of expertise are computational semantics and natural language generation. He has previously authored 90 research publications in philosophical logic, artificial intelligence and computational linguistics.
PART 1: VAGUENESS, WHERE ONE LEASTS EXPECTS IT; PART II: THEORIES OF VAGUENESS; PART III: WORKING MODELS OF VAGUENESS
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 24.5.2012 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | 20 black and white illustrations |
| Verlagsort | Oxford |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 128 x 196 mm |
| Gewicht | 388 g |
| Themenwelt | Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Natur / Technik |
| Informatik ► Theorie / Studium ► Künstliche Intelligenz / Robotik | |
| Mathematik / Informatik ► Mathematik ► Logik / Mengenlehre | |
| Naturwissenschaften | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-19-964573-6 / 0199645736 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-19-964573-2 / 9780199645732 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
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