[FOM] Possibility and probability/ Fabien

[schang.fabien at voila.fr]

> Dear Schang:
Dear Pr Zadeh
> 
>         Thank you for your comment. I see problems with your definitions. (1) What happens when p is a proposition drawn from a natural language? (2) Note that that probabilities which are close to 0 are improbabilities.

Here is my answers. 

(1) concerning the connection between natural language expressions about "possible"/"probable" and the (inde)finite sets of possible worlds charactezing them:
     (1.1) That p is said to be "probable" has to do with quantity and measurement, statistic data and multiple events about one state of affairs. 
     (1.2) That p is said to be "possible" has to do with quality and definition, conceptual analysis and compatibility between an object and its definiendum. 

(2) Concerning the link between closeness to 0 and improbability:
     (2.1.) Would I have suggested something contrary? I regret, if so: of course, any event with a probability greater than 0 is "improbable" and not "impossible" as it stands. 
     (2.2.) To sum up: probability appears to be a finitely quantified version of possibility, to be compared with the difference between usual quantifiers and generalized quantifiers. 

Or it seems to me ...
> 
>        Sincerely,
> Best
>        Lotfi
Fabien 
> -- Lotfi A. Zadeh Professor Emeritus Director, Berkeley Initiative in Soft Computing (BISC) Address: 729 Soda Hall #1776 Computer Science Division Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences University of California Berkeley, CA 94720-1776 zadeh at eecs.berkeley.edu Tel.(office): (510) 642-4959 Tel.(home): (510) 526-2569 Fax (home): (510) 526-2433 URL: http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~zadeh/ BISC Homepage URLs URL: http://zadeh.cs.berkeley.edu/ 

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