Reasoning about possibilities: Modal logics, possible worlds, and mental models.

ABSTRACT: Everyone reasons about possibilities. This article explains how they could do so using mental models. The theory makes four major claims: 1. Correct inferences are necessary, referring only to facts or possibilities to which the premises refer and not ruling any of them out, for example: She left or hid; Therefore, it's possible that she left and possible that she hid. 2. A possibility such as that she hid, which is represented in an intuitive model, presupposes the possibility that it did not occur, she did not hide, which, if reasoners deliberate, is represented in the resulting model. 3. Reasoners condense consistent possibilities, such as the earlier pair, into one possibility: it is possible that she left and she hid. 4. Inconsistencies, such as she left or hid, and she neither left n

SUBMITTER: Johnson-Laird PN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11836090 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature