Endogenizing Epistemic Actions

TL;DR

This paper critiques existing action logic frameworks for their inability to accurately model information dynamics due to the common knowledge assumption of action models, and proposes an alternative semantics that internalizes these models.

Contribution

It introduces an endogenized semantics for action logic, addressing key limitations and providing a sound and complete axiomatization.

Findings

Identified drawbacks in traditional action logic frameworks.

Proposed an alternative semantics that internalizes action models.

Established soundness and completeness of the new approach.

Abstract

Through a series of examples, we illustrate some important drawbacks that the action logic framework suffers from in its ability to represent the dynamics of information updates. We argue that these problems stem from the fact that the action model, a central construct designed to encode agents' uncertainty about actions, is itself effectively common knowledge amongst the agents. In response to these difficulties, we motivate and propose an alternative semantics that avoids them by (roughly speaking) endogenizing the action model. We discuss the relationship to action logic, and provide a sound and complete axiomatization.