A Logic of Vision

Abstract

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 Verdicality, which does not hold generally, will receive our attention as well.