Computer Science

Foundations of Computation

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In a sense, we know a lot more than we realize, because everything that we know has consequences logical consequences—that follow automatically. If you know that all humans are mortal, and you know that you are human, then in a sense you know that you are mortal, whether or not you have ever considered or wanted to consider that fact. This is an example of logical deduction: From the premises that “All humans are mortal” and “I am human,” the conclusion that “I am mortal” can be deduced by logic. Logical deduction is a kind of computation. By applying rules of logic to a given set of premises, conclusions that follow from those premises can be generated automatically, by a computational process which could be carried out by a computer. Once you know the premises, or are willing to accept them for the sake of argument, you are forced—by logic to accept the conclusions. Still, to say that you “know” those conclusions would be misleading. The problem is that there are too many of them (in finitely many), and, in general, most of them are not particularly interesting. Until you have actually made the deduction, you don’t really know the conclusion, and knowing which of the possible chains of deduction to follow is not easy. The art of logic is to find an interesting conclusion and a chain of logical deductions that leads from the premises to that conclusion. Checking that the deductions are valid is the mechanical, computational

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1-256

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English

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NONE

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SECOND EDITION

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Foundations of Computation

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