A Short Note on the Logico-Conceptual Foundations of Information Theory in Partition Logic

Abstract

A new logic of partitions has been developed that is dual to ordinary logic when the latter is interpreted as the logic of subsets of a fixed universe rather than the logic of propositions. For a finite universe, the logic of subsets gave rise to finite probability theory by assigning to each subset its relative size as a probability. The analogous construction for the dual logic of partitions gives rise to a notion of logical entropy that is precisely related to Claude Shannon's entropy. In this manner, the new logic of partitions provides a logico-conceptual foundation for information-theoretic entropy or information content.

Keywords: entropy, information theory, partition logic

JEL Classification: D80