Toward a Dynamic Logic of Questions

Abstract

Questions are triggers for explicit events of 'issue management'. We give a complete logic in dynamic-epistemic style for events of raising, refining, and resolving an issue, all in the presence of information flow through observation or communication. We explore extensions of the framework to multiagent scenarios and long-term temporal protocols. We sketch a comparison with some alternative accounts.

The perfect surprise: a new analysis in dynamic epistemic logic

“…In particular, our [#ϕ]-operator is the direct counterpart of their [retrieve(ϕ)]-operator. However, Lorini and Castelfranchi's static Test(ϕ)-operator does not have a direct counterpart in the present system.9 This bears some resemblance to the issue management system that van Benthem and Minica use to study questions[vBM12], and inquisitive semantics more generally[CGR19]. One could even see issue-raising as a dynamic counterpart of awareness[FH87].…”

OK or not OK? Commitments in acknowledgments and corrections

“…We could modifies states as to include issue partitions in order to represent questions. The recent account in dynamic epistemic logic of van Benthem & Minica (2012) could also be integrated into section 3's dynamics. What is crucial independently of this choice, is that 1's commitments indeed licences a polar question C * C 0 ¬bank?, to which 0 answering yes 3 brings a commitment C 0 C * C 0 ¬bank.…”

Perspectives on Interrogative Models of Inquiry

“…There have been many contributions to the logical studies of questions and answers since the 1970s (see Harrah (1984), , and Groenendijk and Stokhof (1997)). Currently, there exist three main DEL approaches to the representation of questions: the dynamic logic of questions of van Benthem and Minicȃ (2012), the logic of questions and public announcement of Peliš and Majer (2011), and the inquisitive dynamic epistemic logic of Ciardelli and Roelofsen (2015). Rather, one of our goals was to inscribe our work in the line of Hintikka (1976) and to show how Hintikka's theory of questions can be put in a dynamic-epistemic perspective.…”

“…The temporal dimension can be represented using the methodology of van Benthem et al (2009) which proposes a new system of dynamic-epistemic logic with protocols, and which has been applied in van Benthem and Minicȃ (2012) to questioning procedures. From a technical point of view, it seems that all the necessary logical tools are already available to account for the temporal, social, and interactive dimensions of the process of interrogative inquiry.…”