5,601 research outputs found
Precise Propagation of Upper and Lower Probability Bounds in System P
In this paper we consider the inference rules of System P in the framework of
coherent imprecise probabilistic assessments. Exploiting our algorithms, we
propagate the lower and upper probability bounds associated with the
conditional assertions of a given knowledge base, automatically obtaining the
precise probability bounds for the derived conclusions of the inference rules.
This allows a more flexible and realistic use of System P in default reasoning
and provides an exact illustration of the degradation of the inference rules
when interpreted in probabilistic terms. We also examine the disjunctive Weak
Rational Monotony of System P+ proposed by Adams in his extended probability
logic.Comment: 8 pages -8th Intl. Workshop on Non-Monotonic Reasoning NMR'2000,
April 9-11, Breckenridge, Colorad
Probabilistic entailment in the setting of coherence: The role of quasi conjunction and inclusion relation
In this paper, by adopting a coherence-based probabilistic approach to
default reasoning, we focus the study on the logical operation of quasi
conjunction and the Goodman-Nguyen inclusion relation for conditional events.
We recall that quasi conjunction is a basic notion for defining consistency of
conditional knowledge bases. By deepening some results given in a previous
paper we show that, given any finite family of conditional events F and any
nonempty subset S of F, the family F p-entails the quasi conjunction C(S);
then, given any conditional event E|H, we analyze the equivalence between
p-entailment of E|H from F and p-entailment of E|H from C(S), where S is some
nonempty subset of F. We also illustrate some alternative theorems related with
p-consistency and p-entailment. Finally, we deepen the study of the connections
between the notions of p-entailment and inclusion relation by introducing for a
pair (F,E|H) the (possibly empty) class K of the subsets S of F such that C(S)
implies E|H. We show that the class K satisfies many properties; in particular
K is additive and has a greatest element which can be determined by applying a
suitable algorithm
Quasi Conjunction, Quasi Disjunction, T-norms and T-conorms: Probabilistic Aspects
We make a probabilistic analysis related to some inference rules which play
an important role in nonmonotonic reasoning. In a coherence-based setting, we
study the extensions of a probability assessment defined on conditional
events to their quasi conjunction, and by exploiting duality, to their quasi
disjunction. The lower and upper bounds coincide with some well known t-norms
and t-conorms: minimum, product, Lukasiewicz, and Hamacher t-norms and their
dual t-conorms. On this basis we obtain Quasi And and Quasi Or rules. These are
rules for which any finite family of conditional events p-entails the
associated quasi conjunction and quasi disjunction. We examine some cases of
logical dependencies, and we study the relations among coherence, inclusion for
conditional events, and p-entailment. We also consider the Or rule, where quasi
conjunction and quasi disjunction of premises coincide with the conclusion. We
analyze further aspects of quasi conjunction and quasi disjunction, by
computing probabilistic bounds on premises from bounds on conclusions. Finally,
we consider biconditional events, and we introduce the notion of an
-conditional event. Then we give a probabilistic interpretation for a
generalized Loop rule. In an appendix we provide explicit expressions for the
Hamacher t-norm and t-conorm in the unitary hypercube
Numerical Representations of Acceptance
Accepting a proposition means that our confidence in this proposition is
strictly greater than the confidence in its negation. This paper investigates
the subclass of uncertainty measures, expressing confidence, that capture the
idea of acceptance, what we call acceptance functions. Due to the monotonicity
property of confidence measures, the acceptance of a proposition entails the
acceptance of any of its logical consequences. In agreement with the idea that
a belief set (in the sense of Gardenfors) must be closed under logical
consequence, it is also required that the separate acceptance o two
propositions entail the acceptance of their conjunction. Necessity (and
possibility) measures agree with this view of acceptance while probability and
belief functions generally do not. General properties of acceptance functions
are estabilished. The motivation behind this work is the investigation of a
setting for belief revision more general than the one proposed by Alchourron,
Gardenfors and Makinson, in connection with the notion of conditioning.Comment: Appears in Proceedings of the Eleventh Conference on Uncertainty in
Artificial Intelligence (UAI1995
The efficiency of the non-profit enterprise: constitutional ideology, conformist preferences and reputation
According to one thesis the non profit enterprise (in short NPE) is able to attract ideological entrepreneurs and workers (Rose-Ackerman 1996). In fact I prove that without the ideological element, a simple game between the entrepreneur, worker and beneficiary is condemned to an opportunistic equilibrium, beneficial to the internal members of the organization but detrimental to the beneficiary. Thus the NPE does not better than its for profit counterpart. In my model ideologues, both entrepreneurs and workers, share a principle of justice seen as the constitutional ideology of the NPE, agreed upon in an hypothetical ex ante bargaining game. The constitutional principle provides an independent source of motivation (a source of utility) of the players, in so far as they believe in the reciprocity of conformity to the ideology by all the participants. I call this conformity-based utility “ideological”, and I see it as the representation of a preference for expected conformity to the given constitutional principle. The philosophical underpinnings of this reform of the players' utility functions in worked out by distinguishing two concepts of preferences of the Self: consequentialist preferences and conformist preferences. The latter are preferences for those actions that are part of states of affairs described in terms of interdependent actions conforming to an abstract norm or principle, which become effective once the preferences' holder does expect that the other players do they part in that state of affairs and they do expect that himself do his part in the same state of affairs. What result is that a player's ideological utility depends on the expectation of deontological modes of behaviour followed by all the participants, himself included. On this basis it is possible to overcome personal incentives to embrace opportunistic behaviour, so that the proper Non-profit Enterprise emerges. It is proved that in the “social enterprise game” amongst the member of the organisation there exists an organisational equilibrium minimising transaction costs to the beneficiaries. At last, this equilibrium rests on the emergence of an expectations system of reciprocal conformity to the constitutional ideology. As the existence - not even the selection – of the internal organizational equilibrium rests heavily on the existence of the appropriate system of reciprocal expectation, the problem of how we can justify the emergence of the appropriate system of beliefs must be underlined. Here is where the explicit moral codes of the NPE enters the scene. I see the code of ethics as the building block for deriving a reputation equilibrium between the NPE as a whole and its external stakeholders within a repeated game, whose stage-game is the typical game of trust played under incomplete knowledge and unforeseen contingencies. At last the conformist-motivation model and the reputation model under unforeseen contingencies are shown to play together in a mutually supporting explanation of the efficiency of the NPE.
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