1,171 research outputs found
Logical properties of nonmonotonic causal theories and the action language C+
The formalism of nonmonotonic causal theories (Giunchiglia, Lee, Lifschitz, McCain, Turner, 2004) provides a general-purpose formalism for nonmonotonic reasoning and knowledge representation, as well as a higher level, special-purpose notation, the action language C+, for specifying and reasoning about the e ects of actions and the persistence (`inertia') of facts over time. In this paper we investigate some logical properties of these formalisms. There are two motivations. From the technical point of view, we seek to gain additional insights into the properties of the languages when viewed as a species of conditional logic. From the practical point of view, we are seeking to nd conditions under which two di erent causal theories, or two di erent action descriptions in C+, can be said to be equivalent, with the further aim of helping to decide between alternative formulations when constructing practical applications. A condensed version of this paper appeared as `Some logical properties of nonmonotonic causal theories', Proc. Eighth International Conference on Logic Programming and Non-Monotonic Reasoning, LNCS, Springer
Nonmonotonic Probabilistic Logics between Model-Theoretic Probabilistic Logic and Probabilistic Logic under Coherence
Recently, it has been shown that probabilistic entailment under coherence is
weaker than model-theoretic probabilistic entailment. Moreover, probabilistic
entailment under coherence is a generalization of default entailment in System
P. In this paper, we continue this line of research by presenting probabilistic
generalizations of more sophisticated notions of classical default entailment
that lie between model-theoretic probabilistic entailment and probabilistic
entailment under coherence. That is, the new formalisms properly generalize
their counterparts in classical default reasoning, they are weaker than
model-theoretic probabilistic entailment, and they are stronger than
probabilistic entailment under coherence. The new formalisms are useful
especially for handling probabilistic inconsistencies related to conditioning
on zero events. They can also be applied for probabilistic belief revision.
More generally, in the same spirit as a similar previous paper, this paper
sheds light on exciting new formalisms for probabilistic reasoning beyond the
well-known standard ones.Comment: 10 pages; in Proceedings of the 9th International Workshop on
Non-Monotonic Reasoning (NMR-2002), Special Session on Uncertainty Frameworks
in Nonmonotonic Reasoning, pages 265-274, Toulouse, France, April 200
Probabilistic Default Reasoning with Conditional Constraints
We propose a combination of probabilistic reasoning from conditional
constraints with approaches to default reasoning from conditional knowledge
bases. In detail, we generalize the notions of Pearl's entailment in system Z,
Lehmann's lexicographic entailment, and Geffner's conditional entailment to
conditional constraints. We give some examples that show that the new notions
of z-, lexicographic, and conditional entailment have similar properties like
their classical counterparts. Moreover, we show that the new notions of z-,
lexicographic, and conditional entailment are proper generalizations of both
their classical counterparts and the classical notion of logical entailment for
conditional constraints.Comment: 8 pages; to appear in Proceedings of the Eighth International
Workshop on Nonmonotonic Reasoning, Special Session on Uncertainty Frameworks
in Nonmonotonic Reasoning, Breckenridge, Colorado, USA, 9-11 April 200
On Properties of Update Sequences Based on Causal Rejection
We consider an approach to update nonmonotonic knowledge bases represented as
extended logic programs under answer set semantics. New information is
incorporated into the current knowledge base subject to a causal rejection
principle enforcing that, in case of conflicts, more recent rules are preferred
and older rules are overridden. Such a rejection principle is also exploited in
other approaches to update logic programs, e.g., in dynamic logic programming
by Alferes et al. We give a thorough analysis of properties of our approach, to
get a better understanding of the causal rejection principle. We review
postulates for update and revision operators from the area of theory change and
nonmonotonic reasoning, and some new properties are considered as well. We then
consider refinements of our semantics which incorporate a notion of minimality
of change. As well, we investigate the relationship to other approaches,
showing that our approach is semantically equivalent to inheritance programs by
Buccafurri et al. and that it coincides with certain classes of dynamic logic
programs, for which we provide characterizations in terms of graph conditions.
Therefore, most of our results about properties of causal rejection principle
apply to these approaches as well. Finally, we deal with computational
complexity of our approach, and outline how the update semantics and its
refinements can be implemented on top of existing logic programming engines.Comment: 59 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables, to be published in "Theory and
Practice of Logic Programming
Representing First-Order Causal Theories by Logic Programs
Nonmonotonic causal logic, introduced by Norman McCain and Hudson Turner,
became a basis for the semantics of several expressive action languages.
McCain's embedding of definite propositional causal theories into logic
programming paved the way to the use of answer set solvers for answering
queries about actions described in such languages. In this paper we extend this
embedding to nondefinite theories and to first-order causal logic.Comment: 29 pages. To appear in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming
(TPLP); Theory and Practice of Logic Programming, May, 201
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A general approach to temporal reasoning about action and change
Reasoning about actions and change based on common sense knowledge is one of the most important and difficult tasks in the artificial intelligence research area. A series of such tasks are identified which motivate the consideration and application of reasoning formalisms. There follows a discussion of the broad issues involved in modelling time and constructing a logical language. In general, worlds change over time. To model the dynamic world, the ability to predict what the state of the world will be after the execution of a particular sequence of actions, which take time and to explain how some given state change came about, i.e. the causality are basic requirements of any autonomous rational agent.
The research work presented herein addresses some of the fundamental concepts and the relative issues in formal reasoning about actions and change. In this thesis, we employ a new time structure, which helps to deal with the so-called intermingling problem and the dividing instant problem. Also, the issue of how to treat the relationship between a time duration and its relative time entity is examined. In addition, some key terms for representing and reasoning about actions and change, such as states, situations, actions and events are formulated. Furthermore, a new formalism for reasoning about change over time is presented. It allows more flexible temporal causal relationships than do other formalisms for reasoning about causal change, such as the situation calculus and the event calculus. It includes effects that start during, immediately after, or some time after their causes, and which end before, simultaneously with, or after their causes. The presented formalism allows the expression of common-sense causal laws at high level. Also, it is shown how these laws can be used to deduce state change over time at low level. Finally, we show that the approach provided here is expressive
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