Empowering LLMs with Logical Reasoning: A Comprehensive Survey

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Cheng, Fengxiang, Li, Haoxuan, Liu, Fenrong, van Rooij, Robert, Zhang, Kun, Lin, Zhouchen
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Cheng, Fengxiang
Li, Haoxuan
Liu, Fenrong
van Rooij, Robert
Zhang, Kun
Lin, Zhouchen
author_facet Cheng, Fengxiang
Li, Haoxuan
Liu, Fenrong
van Rooij, Robert
Zhang, Kun
Lin, Zhouchen
contents Large language models (LLMs) have achieved remarkable successes on various tasks. However, recent studies have found that there are still significant challenges to the logical reasoning abilities of LLMs, which can be categorized into the following two aspects: (1) Logical question answering: LLMs often fail to generate the correct answer within a complex logical problem which requires sophisticated deductive, inductive or abductive reasoning given a collection of premises. (2) Logical consistency: LLMs are prone to producing responses contradicting themselves across different questions. For example, a state-of-the-art question-answering LLM Macaw, answers Yes to both questions Is a magpie a bird? and Does a bird have wings? but answers No to Does a magpie have wings?. To facilitate this research direction, we comprehensively investigate the most cutting-edge methods and propose a detailed taxonomy. Specifically, to accurately answer complex logic questions, previous methods can be categorized based on reliance on external solvers, prompts, and fine-tuning. To avoid logical contradictions, we discuss concepts and solutions of various logical consistencies, including implication, negation, transitivity, factuality consistencies, and their composites. In addition, we review commonly used benchmark datasets and evaluation metrics, and discuss promising research directions, such as extending to modal logic to account for uncertainty and developing efficient algorithms that simultaneously satisfy multiple logical consistencies.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_15652
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Empowering LLMs with Logical Reasoning: A Comprehensive Survey
Cheng, Fengxiang
Li, Haoxuan
Liu, Fenrong
van Rooij, Robert
Zhang, Kun
Lin, Zhouchen
Artificial Intelligence
Computation and Language
Large language models (LLMs) have achieved remarkable successes on various tasks. However, recent studies have found that there are still significant challenges to the logical reasoning abilities of LLMs, which can be categorized into the following two aspects: (1) Logical question answering: LLMs often fail to generate the correct answer within a complex logical problem which requires sophisticated deductive, inductive or abductive reasoning given a collection of premises. (2) Logical consistency: LLMs are prone to producing responses contradicting themselves across different questions. For example, a state-of-the-art question-answering LLM Macaw, answers Yes to both questions Is a magpie a bird? and Does a bird have wings? but answers No to Does a magpie have wings?. To facilitate this research direction, we comprehensively investigate the most cutting-edge methods and propose a detailed taxonomy. Specifically, to accurately answer complex logic questions, previous methods can be categorized based on reliance on external solvers, prompts, and fine-tuning. To avoid logical contradictions, we discuss concepts and solutions of various logical consistencies, including implication, negation, transitivity, factuality consistencies, and their composites. In addition, we review commonly used benchmark datasets and evaluation metrics, and discuss promising research directions, such as extending to modal logic to account for uncertainty and developing efficient algorithms that simultaneously satisfy multiple logical consistencies.
title Empowering LLMs with Logical Reasoning: A Comprehensive Survey
topic Artificial Intelligence
Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.15652