Incomplete Information: Structure, Inference, Complexity Structure, Inference, Complexity

The construction of any broadly understood theory of information or infor­ mation processing system involves two major methodological processes: (1) abstraction and analysis, (2) reasoning and computing. This monograph is a realisation of these two processes in relation to the study of incompleteness of information. The paradigm we are working with is inspired by a rough-set approach to data analysis: the formalisms we develop enable the use of a non­ invasive data representation. This means that the only information which is and must be used in the process of analysis is the actual information that is to be analysed; we do not require any additional sources of information. An abstraction is formed in the process of conception, design, and develop­ ment of structures. Then analysis leads to a selection of a class of structures. In this book we delineate a class of informational structures that enable us to represent both numerical and non-numerical information and we analyse var­ ious manifestations of its incompleteness. We discuss several general types of incompleteness of information which are grounded in a rough-set-style view of imprecision and uncertainty. Manifestations of these types of incompleteness in information systems are investigated.

1. Mathematical Prerequisites.- I. Structures with Incomplete Information.- 2. Structures of Information.- 3. Information Relations Derived from Information Systems.- 4. Information Operators Derived from Information Systems.- II. Introduction to Information Logics.- 5. Towards Information Logics.- 6. Techniques for Information Logics.- III. Proof Systems for Information Logics.- 7. Reasoning About Similarity.- 8. Reasoning About Indiscernibility.- 9. Reasoning About Knowledge.- IV. Computational Aspects of Information Logics.- 10. Information Logics Versus Standard Modal Logics.- 11. Decidability of Information Logics.- 12. Complexity of Information Logics.- V. Representability and Duality.- 13. Informational Representability.- 14. Informational Interpretation of Standard Algebraic Structures.- 15. Information Algebras.- References.