A logic of vision
In this note we present a logic of vision which employs conditional quantifiers, a new form of
generalised quantification. We indicate how the logic provides for a semantics of direct perception reports.
The logic of vision is resource bounded, where the resources consist of frames over sets of assignments. Conditional
quantifiers use such frames to filter the information given by a formula. This kind of filtering has interesting
logical characteristics in common with the blurring of reality that figures in describing perception.
It is a general feature of resource bounded logics that the underlying logics are weak, but that stronger principles
can be obtained pragmatically, by strengthening the resource. For the logic of vision this feature is clarified by
showing how changes in the resource capture different notions of partiality, and by studying how the perception verb
interacts with quantificational NPs in different visual contexts. The inference Veridicality, which does not hold
generally, will receive our attention as well.
The work presented is part of a much larger project, in which Marr's cognitive theory is used to develop a logic of
vision (Marr 1982). The full paper can be obtained
here.
Jaap van der Does and Michiel van Lambalgen