The Gödel and the Splitting Translations

When the new research area of logic programming and non-monotonic reasoning emerged at the end of the 1980s, it focused notably on the study of mathematical relations between different non-monotonic formalisms, especially between the semantics of stable models and various non-monotonic modal logics. Given the many and varied embeddings of stable models into systems of modal logic, the modal interpretation of logic programming connectives and rules became the dominant view until well into the new century. Recently, modal interpretations are once again receiving attention in the context of hybrid theories that combine reasoning with non-monotonic rules and ontologies or external knowledge bases. In this talk I explain how familiar embeddings of stable models into modal logics can be seen as special cases of two translations that are very well-known in non-classical logic. They are, first, the translation used by Godel in 1933 to em- ¨ bed Heyting’s intuitionistic logic H into a modal provability logic equivalent to Lewis’s S4; second, the splitting translation, known since the mid-1970s, that allows one to embed extensions of S4 into extensions of the non-reflexive logic, K4. By composing the two translations one can obtain (Goldblatt, 1978) an adequate provability interpretation of H within the Goedel-Loeb logic GL, the system shown by Solovay (1976) to capture precisely the provability predicate of Peano Arithmetic. These two translations and their composition not only apply to monotonic logics extending H and S4, they also apply in several relevant cases to non-monotonic logics built upon such extensions, including equilibrium logic, non-monotonic S4F and autoepistemic logic. The embeddings obtained are not merely faithful and modular, they are based on fully recursive translations applicable to arbitrary logical formulas. Besides providing a uniform picture of some older results in LPNMR, the translations yield a perspective from which some new logics of belief emerge in a natural wa

A Goal-Directed Implementation of Query Answering for Hybrid MKNF Knowledge Bases

Ontologies and rules are usually loosely coupled in knowledge representation formalisms. In fact, ontologies use open-world reasoning while the leading semantics for rules use non-monotonic, closed-world reasoning. One exception is the tightly-coupled framework of Minimal Knowledge and Negation as Failure (MKNF), which allows statements about individuals to be jointly derived via entailment from an ontology and inferences from rules. Nonetheless, the practical usefulness of MKNF has not always been clear, although recent work has formalized a general resolution-based method for querying MKNF when rules are taken to have the well-founded semantics, and the ontology is modeled by a general oracle. That work leaves open what algorithms should be used to relate the entailments of the ontology and the inferences of rules. In this paper we provide such algorithms, and describe the implementation of a query-driven system, CDF-Rules, for hybrid knowledge bases combining both (non-monotonic) rules under the well-founded semantics and a (monotonic) ontology, represented by a CDF Type-1 (ALQ) theory. To appear in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP

Towards a Rule Interchange Language for the Web

This articles discusses rule languages that are needed for a a full deployment of the SemanticWeb. First, it motivates the need for such languages. Then, it presents ten theses addressing (1) the rule and/or logic languages needed on the Web, (2) data and data processing, (3) semantics, and (4) engineering and rendering issues. Finally, it discusses two options that might be chosen in designing a Rule Interchange Format for the Web

Properties of ABA+ for Non-Monotonic Reasoning

We investigate properties of ABA+, a formalism that extends the well studied structured argumentation formalism Assumption-Based Argumentation (ABA) with a preference handling mechanism. In particular, we establish desirable properties that ABA+ semantics exhibit. These pave way to the satisfaction by ABA+ of some (arguably) desirable principles of preference handling in argumentation and nonmonotonic reasoning, as well as non-monotonic inference properties of ABA+ under various semantics.Comment: This is a revised version of the paper presented at the worksho

Super Logic Programs

The Autoepistemic Logic of Knowledge and Belief (AELB) is a powerful nonmonotic formalism introduced by Teodor Przymusinski in 1994. In this paper, we specialize it to a class of theories called `super logic programs'. We argue that these programs form a natural generalization of standard logic programs. In particular, they allow disjunctions and default negation of arbibrary positive objective formulas. Our main results are two new and powerful characterizations of the static semant ics of these programs, one syntactic, and one model-theoretic. The syntactic fixed point characterization is much simpler than the fixed point construction of the static semantics for arbitrary AELB theories. The model-theoretic characterization via Kripke models allows one to construct finite representations of the inherently infinite static expansions. Both characterizations can be used as the basis of algorithms for query answering under the static semantics. We describe a query-answering interpreter for super programs which we developed based on the model-theoretic characterization and which is available on the web.Comment: 47 pages, revised version of the paper submitted 10/200

Reasoning about Action: An Argumentation - Theoretic Approach

We present a uniform non-monotonic solution to the problems of reasoning about action on the basis of an argumentation-theoretic approach. Our theory is provably correct relative to a sensible minimisation policy introduced on top of a temporal propositional logic. Sophisticated problem domains can be formalised in our framework. As much attention of researchers in the field has been paid to the traditional and basic problems in reasoning about actions such as the frame, the qualification and the ramification problems, approaches to these problems within our formalisation lie at heart of the expositions presented in this paper