Generalized Truth Values: From FOUR 2 to SIXTEEN 3

Abstract

In the present chapter, we discuss the possibility of generalizing the very notion of a truth value by constructing truth values as complex units which may possess a ramified inner structure. We consider some approaches to truth values as structured entities and summarize this point in the notion of a generalized truth value conceived as a subset of some basic set of initial truth values of a lower degree. We are essentially led by the idea which is at the heart of Belnap and Dunn’s useful four-valued logic, where the set \({{\mathbf{2}}} = \{T,F\}\) of classical truth values is generalized to the set \({{\mathbf{4}}} = {{\fancyscript{P}}}({{\mathbf{2}}}) = \{\varnothing,\{T\},\{F\},\{T,F\}\}.\) We argue in favor of extending this process to the set \({{\mathbf{16}}} = {{\fancyscript{P}}}({{\mathbf{4}}}).\) It turns out that this generalization is well-motivated and leads to a notion of a truth value multilattice. In particular, we proceed from the bilattice \(FOUR_{2}\) with both an information and truth-and-falsity ordering to another algebraic structure, namely the trilattice \(SIXTEEN_{3}\) with an information ordering together with a truth ordering \(and\) a (distinct) falsity ordering. We also consider another exemplification of essentially the same structure based on the set of truth values one can find in various constructive logics.