Abstract
A probabilistic justification of default reasoning is given which is based on ɛ-semantics. Whenever a consequence is derived from a default law and a fact in the presence of further facts, a default assumption is generated claiming that these further facts are probabilistically irrelevant. Each extension Ei of a knowledge base K (in Reiter's sense) corresponds to a set of default assumptions Di generated by Ei. It is proved that if Reiter's original definition is modified, then for each extension Ei, Di will be ɛ-consistent with K, and Ei will contain exactly those sentences which are ɛ-entailed by K plus Di. As a result, we obtain a method of calculating lower probability bounds of the consequences in Ei from the default assumptions Di and the given (nonextreme) lower probability bounds associated with the default laws. Finally, a method of deriving one single and preferred extension E is introduced which is based on a solution of the problem of collective defeat and is probabilistically justified in the same way.
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© 1994 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Schurz, G. (1994). Probabilistic justification of default reasoning. In: Nebel, B., Dreschler-Fischer, L. (eds) KI-94: Advances in Artificial Intelligence. KI 1994. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 861. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-58467-6_22
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-58467-6_22
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