Inference in First-Order Logic

Inference in First-Order Logic is used to deduce new facts or sentences from existing
sentences. Before understanding the FOL inference rule, let's understand some basic
terminologies used in FOL.

Substitution:

Substitution is a fundamental operation performed on terms and formulas. It occurs in all

inference systems in first-order logic. The substitution is complex in the presence of
quantifiers in FOL. If we write F[a/x], so it refers to substitute a constant "a" in place of
variable "x".

Equality:

First-Order logic does not only use predicate and terms for making atomic sentences but also
uses another way, which is equality in FOL. For this, we can use equality symbols which
specify that the two terms refer to the same object.

Example: Brother (John) = Smith.

As in the above example, the object referred by the Brother (John) is similar to the object
referred by Smith. The equality symbol can also be used with negation to represent that two
terms are not the same objects.

Example: ￢(x=y) which is equivalent to x ≠y.

FOL inference rules for quantifier:

As propositional logic we also have inference rules in first-order logic, so following are some
basic inference rules in FOL:

1. Universal Generalization

2. Universal Instantiation

3. Existential Instantiation

4. Existential introduction
1. Universal Generalization:

• Universal generalization is a valid inference rule which states that if premise P(c) is true
for any arbitrary element c in the universe of discourse, then we can have a conclusion as
∀ x P(x).

• It can be represented as

• This rule can be used if we want to show that every element has a similar property.

• In this rule, x must not appear as a free variable.

• Example: Let's represent, P(c): "A byte contains 8 bits", so for ∀ x P(x) "All bytes contain
8 bits.", it will also be true.
2. Universal Instantiation:

• Universal instantiation is also called as universal elimination or UI is a valid inference

rule.

• It can be applied multiple times to add new sentences.

• The new KB is logically equivalent to the previous KB.

• As per UI, we can infer any sentence obtained by substituting a ground term for the
variable.

• The UI rule state that we can infer any sentence P(c) by substituting a ground term c (a
constant within domain x) from ∀ x P(x) for any object in the universe of discourse.

• It can be represented as:

Example:1.
IF "Every person like ice-cream"=> ∀x P(x) so we can infer that
"John likes ice-cream" => P(c)
Example: 2.

"All kings who are greedy are Evil." So let our knowledge base contains this detail as in the
form of FOL:

∀x king(x) ∧ greedy (x) → Evil (x),

So from this information, we can infer any of the following statements using Universal
Instantiation:

King(John) ∧ Greedy (John) → Evil (John),

King(Richard) ∧ Greedy (Richard) → Evil (Richard),

King(Father(John)) ∧ Greedy (Father(John)) → Evil (Father(John)),

3. Existential Instantiation:

• Existential instantiation is also called as Existential Elimination, which is a valid inference

rule in first-order logic.

• It can be applied only once to replace the existential sentence.

• The new KB is not logically equivalent to old KB, but it will be satisfiable if old KB was
satisfiable.

• This rule states that one can infer P(c) from the formula given in the form of ∃x P(x) for
a new constant symbol c.

• The restriction with this rule is that c used in the rule must be a new term for which P(c )
is true.

• It can be represented as:

Example:

From the given sentence: ∃x Crown(x) ∧ OnHead(x, John),

So we can infer: Crown(K) ∧ OnHead( K, John), as long as K does not appear in the
knowledge base.

The above used K is a constant symbol, which is called Skolem constant.

The Existential instantiation is a special case of Skolemization process.

4. Existential introduction

An existential introduction is also known as an existential generalization, which is a valid

inference rule in first-order logic.

This rule states that if there is some element c in the universe of discourse which has a
property P, then we can infer that there exists something in the universe which has the
property P.

It can be represented as:

Example: Let's say that,

"Priyanka got good marks in English.“

"Therefore, someone got good marks in English."

Generalized Modus Ponens Rule:

For the inference process in FOL, we have a single inference rule which is called
Generalized Modus Ponens. It is lifted version of Modus ponens.

Generalized Modus Ponens can be summarized as, " P implies Q and P is asserted to be
true, therefore Q must be True.“

Example:

If today is Tuesday, then John will go to work. Today is Tuesday. Therefore,

John will go to work
 What is Unification?
• Unification is a process of making two different logical atomic expressions identical by
finding a substitution. Unification depends on the substitution process.

• It takes two literals as input and makes them identical using substitution.

• Let Ψ1 and Ψ2 be two atomic sentences and 𝜎 be a unifier such that, Ψ1𝜎 = Ψ2𝜎, then it
can be expressed as UNIFY(Ψ1, Ψ2).

• Example: Find the MGU for Unify{King(x), King(John)}

• Let Ψ1 = King(x), Ψ2 = King(John),

• Substitution θ = {John/x} is a unifier for these atoms and applying this substitution, and
both expressions will be identical.
• The UNIFY algorithm is used for unification, which takes two atomic sentences and
returns a unifier for those sentences (If any exist).

• Unification is a key component of all first-order inference algorithms.

• It returns fail if the expressions do not match with each other.

• The substitution variables are called Most General Unifier or MGU.

E.g. Let's say there are two different expressions, P(x, y), and P(a, f(z)).

In this example, we need to make both above statements identical to each other. For this,
we will perform the substitution.

P(x, y)......... (i)

P(a, f(z))......... (ii)

Substitute x with a, and y with f(z) in the first expression, and it will be represented
as a/x and f(z)/y.

With both the substitutions, the first expression will be identical to the second expression
and the substitution set will be: [a/x, f(z)/y].
Conditions for Unification:

some basic conditions for unification:

• Predicate symbol must be same, atoms or expression with different predicate symbol
can never be unified.

• Number of Arguments in both expressions must be identical.

• Unification will fail if there are two similar variables present in the same expression.
1. Find the MGU of {p(f(a), g(Y)) and p(X, X)}

Sol: S0 => Here, Ψ1 = p(f(a), g(Y)), and Ψ2 = p(X, X)

SUBST θ= {f(a) / X}

S1 => Ψ1 = p(f(a), g(Y)), and Ψ2 = p(f(a), f(a))

SUBST θ= {f(a) / g(y)}, Unification failed.

Unification is not possible for these expressions.

2. Find the MGU of {p(b, X, f(g(Z))) and p(Z, f(Y), f(Y))}

Here, Ψ1 = p(b, X, f(g(Z))) , and Ψ2 = p(Z, f(Y), f(Y))

S0 => { p(b, X, f(g(Z))); p(Z, f(Y), f(Y))}

SUBST θ={b/Z}

S1 => { p(b, X, f(g(b))); p(b, f(Y), f(Y))}

SUBST θ={f(Y) /X}

S2 => { p(b, f(Y), f(g(b))); p(b, f(Y), f(Y))}

SUBST θ= {g(b) /Y}

S2 => { p(b, f(g(b)), f(g(b)); p(b, f(g(b)), f(g(b))} Unified Successfully.

And Unifier = { b/Z, f(Y) /X , g(b) /Y}.