- Library Home /
- Search Collections /
- Open Collections /
- Browse Collections /
- UBC Theses and Dissertations /
- Reasoning with incomplete information : investigations...
Open Collections
UBC Theses and Dissertations
UBC Theses and Dissertations
Reasoning with incomplete information : investigations of non-monotonic reasoning Etherington, David William
Abstract
Intelligent behaviour relies heavily on the ability to reason in the absence of complete information. Until recently, there has been little work done on developing a formal understanding of how such reasoning can be performed. We focus on two aspects of this problem: default or prototypical reasoning, and closed-world or circumscriptive reasoning. After surveying the work in the field, we concentrate on Reiter's default logic and the various circumscriptive formalisms developed by McCarthy and others. Taking a largely semantic approach, we develop and/or extend model-theoretic semantics for the formalisms in question. These and other tools are then used to chart the capabilities, limitations, and interrelationships of the various approaches. It is argued that the formal systems considered, while interesting in their own rights, have an important role as specification/evaluation tools vis-a-vis explicitly computational approaches. An application of these principles is given in the formalization of inheritance networks in the presence of exceptions, using default logic.
Item Metadata
| Title |
Reasoning with incomplete information : investigations of non-monotonic reasoning
|
| Creator | |
| Publisher |
University of British Columbia
|
| Date Issued |
1986
|
| Description |
Intelligent behaviour relies heavily on the ability to reason in the absence of complete information. Until recently, there has been little work done on developing a formal understanding of how such reasoning can be performed. We focus on two aspects of this problem: default or prototypical reasoning, and closed-world or circumscriptive reasoning.
After surveying the work in the field, we concentrate on Reiter's default logic and the various circumscriptive formalisms developed by McCarthy and others. Taking a largely semantic approach, we develop and/or extend model-theoretic semantics for the formalisms in question. These and other tools are then used to chart the capabilities, limitations, and interrelationships of the various approaches.
It is argued that the formal systems considered, while interesting in their own rights, have an important role as specification/evaluation tools vis-a-vis explicitly computational approaches. An application of these principles is given in the formalization of inheritance networks in the presence of exceptions, using default logic.
|
| Genre | |
| Type | |
| Language |
eng
|
| Date Available |
2010-08-02
|
| Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
|
| Rights |
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
|
| DOI |
10.14288/1.0051930
|
| URI | |
| Degree | |
| Program | |
| Affiliation | |
| Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
|
| Campus | |
| Scholarly Level |
Graduate
|
| Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
|
Item Media
Loading media...
Item Citations and Data
Permanent URL (DOI):
Copied to clipboard.Rights
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.