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Rational behaviour of agents is driven by their information about the world, but equally importantly, by their preferences between actions or outcomes of actions. Thus a logic of preference should be a necessary part of any successful logical account of rational agency. But agents do not just reason with fixed preferences, they are subject to a constant stream of new information which affects their knowledge and belief, and likewise, to a stream of preference changing events which affect their goals and desires. This book is the first to investigate in a systematic manner, what logical systems must look like to deal with both information dynamics and preference change in an integrated manner. Its purpose in doing so is finding a perspective that does justice to all aspects of reasoning about agency, while providing a coherent framework that can absorb insights from many fields. The methods used in this study combine several ingredients: existing logics of belief and preference, new dynamic-epistemic logics of information flow based on triggering events , and theories of structured preference based on underlying priority orders among properties of objects or worlds. The result is a systematic family of complete logical systems, which greatly extends the existing literature on preference logic, while clarifying a number of philosophical issues concerning agency. In line with its unifying ambition, the book also considers a wide variety of concrete examples, drawn from deontic logic, game theory, linguistic optimality theory, social choice theory, and other areas.
List of contents
Preface.- Part I Introduction.- 1. Introduction.- Part II Dynamics of Information.- 2. Dynamic Epistemic Logic.- Part III Preference over Worlds.- 3. Preference over Worlds: Static Logic.- 4. Preference over Worlds: Dynamic Logic.- 5. Entanglement of Preference, Knowledge and Belief.- 6. Intermezzo: A Quantative Approach.- Part IV Preference from Priorities.- 7. Preference from Priorities: Static Logic.- 8. Belief-based Preference.- 9. Preference from Priorities: Dynamic Logic.- Part V A Two-Level Perspective on Preference.- 10. A Two-Level Perspective on Preference.- Part VI Applications and Discussions.- 11. Deontic Reasoning.- 12. Games and Actions.- Part VII Finale.- 13. Conclusion.- References.- Index.
About the author
Fenrong Liu is an associate professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing, one of the most prestigious universities in China. She received her first Ph.D degree in Philosophy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 2001 on default reasoning, a topic linking philosophy with Artificial Intelligence. From 2003-2008, she worked at the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) at the University of Amsterdam, where she obtained a second Ph.D degree in Science on dynamic logics of preference. She has published some 40 papers, and has organized many events, including a new Chinese conferences series on Logic,
Rationality, and Intelligent Interaction (LORI). Her research is aimed at understanding how information changes guide rational agency in terms of beliefs and preference, and in modelling similarities and differences between agents, making room for agent diversity in logic. In addition, she pursues an active program in Chinese Ancient Logic, reading Chinese old texts by modern logical theories.
Summary
Our preferences determine how we act and think, but exactly what the mechanics are and how they work is a central cause of concern in many disciplines. This book uses techniques from modern logics of information flow and action to develop a unified new theory of what preference is and how it changes. The theory emphasizes reasons for preference, as well as its entanglement with our beliefs. Moreover, the book provides dynamic logical systems which describe the explicit triggers driving preference change, including new information, suggestions, and commands. In sum, the book creates new bridges between many fields, from philosophy and computer science to economics, linguistics, and psychology. For the experienced scholar access to a large body of recent literature is provided and the novice gets a thorough introduction to the action and techniques of dynamic logic.
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"This is an excellent book. It offers a clear and concise overview of dynamic preference logic and logics that can reason about both beliefs and preferences. Fenrong has managed to provide an accessible and comprehensive overview of recent work in this area, including very interesting connections with deontic logic and game theory. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in using logical models to reason about rational agents." Eric Pacuit, Tilburg Center for Logic and Philosophy of Science, The Netherlands
"Reasoning about Preference Dynamics is an innovative and unusually well-written account of human preferences and how they change. It is a must for anyone interested in the dynamics of preferences." Sven Ove Hansson, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
"This nice book presents a survey of preference logics and preference dynamics, very much state-of-the-art, and Fenrong Liu is extremely well-informed about the relevant literature. She has a remarkable talent on how to restrict herself to the essentials, in order to convey the message and produce something very readable." Hans van Ditmarsch, University of Sevilla, Spain
Report
"This is an excellent book. It offers a clear and concise overview of dynamic preference logic and logics that can reason about both beliefs and preferences. Fenrong has managed to provide an accessible and comprehensive overview of recent work in this area, including very interesting connections with deontic logic and game theory. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in using logical models to reason about rational agents." Eric Pacuit, Tilburg Center for Logic and Philosophy of Science, The Netherlands
"Reasoning about Preference Dynamics is an innovative and unusually well-written account of human preferences and how they change. It is a must for anyone interested in the dynamics of preferences." Sven Ove Hansson, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
"This nice book presents a survey of preference logics and preference dynamics, very much state-of-the-art, and Fenrong Liu is extremely well-informed about the relevant literature. She has a remarkable talent on how to restrict herself to the essentials, in order to convey the message and produce something very readable." Hans van Ditmarsch, University of Sevilla, Spain
