7 ms·

Use Prolog to write psycho-philosophical case studies

8 points by vaguetruth 2y ago

guys! I'm into logic and philosophy of language applied to psychology. stumbled on this site from googling prolog! please, can you recommend a programming Prolog video intro for me? And subsequent todo (applied) videos I can follow. I'm interested in programming (my undergrad is cs) immediately and applying Prolog to write psycho-philosophical case studies.

TheMatten 2y ago
You seem to have a very specific use case in mind and I am not really sure whether Prolog is going to be a good fit, but there was recently a discussion about the language: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40994552 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40994552 Specifically, this online book (mentioned in that discussion) may be a good resource, I've used author's content as a reference several times: https://www.metalevel.at/prolog https://www.metalevel.at/prolog
- vaguetruth 2y ago
  "I am not really sure whether Prolog is going to be a good fit" what is it about Prolog that doesn't sync with my use case that made you write this? Thanks for the online book recommendation!!
usgroup 2y ago
Consider starting here: https://book.simply-logical.space/src/simply-logical.html https://book.simply-logical.space/src/simply-logical.html There isn't much to read; you mostly have to spend your time thinking about implications. It'll quickly test how into logic you really are :-) Good luck.
- vaguetruth 2y ago
  Thanks for that! :)
  - usgroup 2y ago
    I'd additionally suggest joining the SWI Prolog board. They are a kind and generous community. Jan Wielemaker -- the principal contributor -- often answers questions directly. Meanwhile, SWI Prolog is a mature and commercially used open-source Prolog distribution. It has a huge number of libraries which will come in useful for real world applications.
shawa_a_a 2y ago
I don’t know about your particular use case, but it is never a bad idea to learn Prolog. https://www.metalevel.at/prolog https://www.metalevel.at/prolog The Power of Prolog is an extremely in depth, comprehensive introduction that starts right from fundamentals, and goes into some pretty advanced topics. It’s a really great resource, with well-produced accompanying videos, and leans into properly grokking the language and the “Prolog way” of problem solving. I’d make a meta point that learning Prolog and forcing yourself to solve problems the “prolog way” serves as a great exercise in understanding the importance of using the right tool for the job, and working with, rather than in spite of , your tools.
Rochus 2y ago
What do you mean by "psycho-philosophical case studies"? Why do you think that you need Prolog for this? Are you familiar e.g. with CYC and their way of knowledge formalisation/representation? See e.g https://iral.cs.umbc.edu/Pubs/AAAI06SS-SyntaxAndContentOfCyc.pdf https://iral.cs.umbc.edu/Pubs/AAAI06SS-SyntaxAndContentOfCyc... (or the full list of publications https://cyc.com/publications/ https://cyc.com/publications/). CYC is interesting because they have been formalizing knowledge for a very long time, and in parallel have also improved their methods and technologies. Prolog is very rudimentary in comparison. Or did you have a look at e.g. the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web with all the related technologies, such as OWL?

8 points by vaguetruth 2y ago

TheMatten 2y ago

You seem to have a very specific use case in mind and I am not really sure whether Prolog is going to be a good fit, but there was recently a discussion about the language: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40994552 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40994552 Specifically, this online book (mentioned in that discussion) may be a good resource, I've used author's content as a reference several times: https://www.metalevel.at/prolog https://www.metalevel.at/prolog

vaguetruth 2y ago
"I am not really sure whether Prolog is going to be a good fit" what is it about Prolog that doesn't sync with my use case that made you write this? Thanks for the online book recommendation!!

usgroup 2y ago

Consider starting here: https://book.simply-logical.space/src/simply-logical.html https://book.simply-logical.space/src/simply-logical.html There isn't much to read; you mostly have to spend your time thinking about implications. It'll quickly test how into logic you really are :-) Good luck.

vaguetruth 2y ago
Thanks for that! :)
- usgroup 2y ago
  I'd additionally suggest joining the SWI Prolog board. They are a kind and generous community. Jan Wielemaker -- the principal contributor -- often answers questions directly. Meanwhile, SWI Prolog is a mature and commercially used open-source Prolog distribution. It has a huge number of libraries which will come in useful for real world applications.

shawa_a_a 2y ago

I don’t know about your particular use case, but it is never a bad idea to learn Prolog. https://www.metalevel.at/prolog https://www.metalevel.at/prolog The Power of Prolog is an extremely in depth, comprehensive introduction that starts right from fundamentals, and goes into some pretty advanced topics. It’s a really great resource, with well-produced accompanying videos, and leans into properly grokking the language and the “Prolog way” of problem solving. I’d make a meta point that learning Prolog and forcing yourself to solve problems the “prolog way” serves as a great exercise in understanding the importance of using the right tool for the job, and working with, rather than in spite of , your tools.

Rochus 2y ago

What do you mean by "psycho-philosophical case studies"? Why do you think that you need Prolog for this? Are you familiar e.g. with CYC and their way of knowledge formalisation/representation? See e.g https://iral.cs.umbc.edu/Pubs/AAAI06SS-SyntaxAndContentOfCyc.pdf https://iral.cs.umbc.edu/Pubs/AAAI06SS-SyntaxAndContentOfCyc... (or the full list of publications https://cyc.com/publications/ https://cyc.com/publications/). CYC is interesting because they have been formalizing knowledge for a very long time, and in parallel have also improved their methods and technologies. Prolog is very rudimentary in comparison. Or did you have a look at e.g. the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web with all the related technologies, such as OWL?