Value Coalition Logic: A Typed Assignment-Based Reconstruction of Coalition Logic
Pith reviewed 2026-06-29 19:52 UTC · model grok-4.3
The pith
Value Coalition Logic replaces propositional valuations with typed value assignments at states while preserving the standard strategic semantics of coalition logic.
A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.
Core claim
Value Coalition Logic keeps the standard one-step game-form clause for coalitional ability but replaces flat propositional valuations with total assignments of values to finitely typed variables. Because each state is already a complete, exhaustive and mutually exclusive assignment, the semantics builds value coherence in at the atomic level. For every fixed finite typed signature the resulting logic is truth-equivalent to propositional coalition logic evaluated only on coherent valuations. Adding the finite-domain value-coherence axioms to the standard coalition-logic axioms therefore yields a sound and complete Hilbert-style system. Projecting coalitional ability onto individual value doma
What carries the argument
Typed value assignments at states, which replace propositional valuations and enforce exhaustivity and mutual exclusion by construction while the strategic clause remains the standard one-step game-form interpretation.
If this is right
- Over each fixed finite typed signature the two logics validate exactly the same formulas.
- A sound and complete axiomatisation is obtained by adjoining the finite-domain value-coherence axioms to the standard coalition-logic axioms.
- Projecting coalitional ability onto a single value domain produces quotient game forms and projected effectivity families.
- These structures support set-valued strategic exclusion, transversal polarity for disjoint coalitions, and exact boundary duality between the empty and grand coalitions.
- The logic remains conservative in its strategic modality while exposing value-level invariants such as residual value indeterminacy measured by strategic value-range hypergraphs.
Where Pith is reading between the lines
- The typed semantics could be used directly to model domains whose value constraints are already exhaustive and exclusive, avoiding the need to encode coherence as separate modal axioms.
- The quotient structures may supply a uniform way to compute the effectivity of coalitions when outcomes are required to respect a typed partition of the state space.
- Extending the construction beyond finite signatures would require additional compactness or finiteness conditions that are not addressed in the present equivalence proof.
Load-bearing premise
The interpretation of coalitional ability stays exactly the standard one-step game-form clause even after states are changed to carry total typed value assignments.
What would settle it
A finite typed signature together with a formula that is true under the typed-assignment semantics but false under the coherent propositional semantics (or vice versa) would falsify the claimed truth-equivalence.
read the original abstract
We introduce Value Coalition Logic, a typed assignment-based reconstruction of classical coalition logic. The strategic semantics is unchanged: coalitional ability is still interpreted by the standard one-step game-form clause. The change is at the atomic level. Instead of flat propositional valuations, states carry total assignments of values to finitely typed variables. As a result, exhaustivity and mutual exclusion of alternative values are built into the semantics, rather than imposed as external coherence constraints. We prove that, over each fixed finite typed signature, Value Coalition Logic is truth-equivalent to propositional coalition logic over coherent valuations. This correspondence yields a sound and complete Hilbert-style axiomatisation obtained by adding finite-domain value-coherence axioms to the standard axioms of coalition logic. The main contribution is structural. Projecting ordinary coalitional ability onto a single value domain yields quotient game forms, projected effectivity families, and strategic value-range hypergraphs. These structures support set-valued strategic exclusion, transversal polarity for disjoint coalitions, exact boundary duality between the empty and grand coalitions, and a measure of residual value indeterminacy. Thus the logic is conservative in its strategic modality, but exposes value-level invariants that are hidden in flat propositional encodings.
Editorial analysis
A structured set of objections, weighed in public.
Referee Report
Summary. The paper introduces Value Coalition Logic as a typed assignment-based variant of coalition logic. States are total assignments of values to finitely typed variables rather than flat propositional valuations, while the one-step game-form semantics for the coalitional ability modality [C] is left unchanged. The central claim is that, for any fixed finite typed signature, the logic is truth-equivalent to standard propositional coalition logic restricted to coherent valuations; this equivalence yields a sound and complete Hilbert axiomatization obtained simply by adjoining the finite-domain exhaustivity and mutual-exclusion axioms to the usual coalition-logic axioms. The paper further develops structural notions obtained by projecting coalitional ability onto single value domains: quotient game forms, projected effectivity families, strategic value-range hypergraphs, set-valued strategic exclusion, transversal polarity, exact boundary duality between empty and grand coalitions, and a measure of residual value indeterminacy.
Significance. If the correspondence holds, the work supplies a conservative reconstruction that makes value-level coherence an intrinsic semantic feature rather than an external constraint. The structural constructions (quotient game forms, value-range hypergraphs, boundary duality) are defined by projection and therefore inherit the effectivity relations of the original models; they expose invariants that remain hidden under flat propositional encodings. The paper ships an explicit bijection between total assignments and coherent valuations together with a direct transfer of soundness and completeness, both of which are load-bearing strengths.
minor comments (3)
- §3 (or wherever the quotient game form is defined): the notation for the projected effectivity family could be clarified by an explicit commutative diagram relating the original and quotient relations.
- The statement of the truth-equivalence theorem would benefit from an explicit sentence confirming that the one-step game-form clause is literally identical on both sides of the correspondence.
- A short table comparing the original coalition-logic axioms with the augmented Value Coalition Logic axioms would make the transfer of completeness immediately visible.
Simulated Author's Rebuttal
We thank the referee for the careful reading of the manuscript and for the positive assessment. We are pleased that the referee recommends acceptance.
Circularity Check
No significant circularity identified
full rationale
The derivation establishes truth-equivalence by exhibiting an explicit bijection between total assignments over a fixed finite typed signature and coherent propositional valuations, with the one-step game-form clause for coalitional ability left literally unchanged. The added finite-domain coherence axioms are the standard exhaustivity and mutual-exclusion axioms that axiomatize precisely those models, so soundness and completeness transfer directly from the known completeness of coalition logic. All structural constructions (quotient game forms, projected effectivity families, value-range hypergraphs) are defined by projection and therefore inherit the same effectivity relations without introducing new assumptions. No self-definitional reductions, fitted inputs renamed as predictions, or load-bearing self-citations appear in the chain; the central claim is self-contained against the external benchmark of standard coalition logic.
Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger
axioms (1)
- domain assumption Finite-domain value-coherence axioms
Reference graph
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