# Epistemic Syllogistic: First Steps

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.05043 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.05043/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 4 of its 18 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 11 Jul 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [Beyond knowing that: a new generation of epistemic logics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1605.01995/) (2016)
- [Bundled fragments of first-order modal logic: (un)decidability](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.10508/) (2018)
- [A New Modal Framework for Epistemic Logic](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.08764/) (2017)
- [Exploring the Landscape of Relational Syllogistic Logics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.00656/) (2018)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Aristotle's discussions on modal syllogistic have often been viewed as error-prone and have garnered significant attention in the literature due to historical and philosophical interests. However, from a contemporary standpoint, they also introduced natural fragments of first-order modal logic, warranting a comprehensive technical analysis. In this paper, drawing inspiration from the natural logic program, we propose and examine several variants of modal syllogistic within the epistemic context, thereby coining the term Epistemic Syllogistic. Specifically, we concentrate on the de re interpretation of epistemic syllogisms containing non-trivial yet natural expressions such as "all things known to be A are also known to be not B." We explore the epistemic apodeictic syllogistic and its extensions, which accommodate more complex terms. Our main contributions include several axiomatizations of these logics, with completeness proofs that may be of independent interest.