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How Formal Logic Can Fail to Be Useful for Modelling or Designing Mas

There is a certain style of paper which has become traditional in MAS – one where a formal logic is introduced to express some ideas, or where a logic is extended on the basis that it then covers certain particular cases, but where the logic is not actually used to make any substantial inferences and no application of the logic demonstrated. I argue that although these papers do follow a certain tradition, that they are not useful given the state of MAS and should, in future, be rejected as premature (just as if one had simulation but never run it). I counter the argument that theory is necessary by denying that the theory has to be so abstract. I counter the argument that logic helps communication on the simple grounds that for most people it doesn’t. I argue that the type of logic that tends to be used in these papers is inappropriate. I finish with some suggestions as to useful ways forward.