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Preferential semantics for causal fixpoints

  • Knowledge Representation and Reasoning
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Advanced Topics in Artificial Intelligence (AI 1997)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 1342))

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Abstract

In this paper we concentrate on the causal theory of action developed by McCain and Turner [2] for computing ramifications. Our aim here is to characterise this theory of action in terms of a preferentialstyle semantics in the spirit of Shoham [4]. Such a result would not only place McCain and Turner's theory in a uniform setting, facilitating comparison with other logics of action, but also give a clearer insight into the nature and behaviour of causality captured by their framework. We first show that this objective is not attainable via a traditional preferential semantics. However, preferential semantics is not abandoned entirely. Rather, it is augmented to arrive at the desired result. We maintain that two components — minimal change and causality — are essential in providing a (concise) solution to the frame and ramification problems.

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References

  1. Joakim Gustafsson and Patrick Doherty. Embracing occlusion in specifying the indirect effects of actions. In L. Aiello, J. Doyle, and S. Shapiro, editors, Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Knowledge Representation and Reasoning. Morgan-Kaufmann, 1996.

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  2. Norman McCain and Hudson Turner. A causal theory of ramifications and qualifications. In Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, pages 1978–1984. Montreal, 1995.

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  3. Erik Sandewall. Assessments of ramification methods that use static domain constraints. In L. Aiello, J. Doyle, and S. Shapiro, editors, Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Knowledge Representation and Reasoning. Morgan-Kaufmann, 1996.

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  4. Yoav Shoham. Reasoning About Change. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1988.

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  5. Marianne Winslett. Reasoning about actions using a possible models approach. In Proceedings of the Seventh National Artificial Intelligence Conference, San Mateo, CA., 1988. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.

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Abdul Sattar

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© 1997 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Peppas, P., Pagnucco, M., Prokopenko, M., Foo, N. (1997). Preferential semantics for causal fixpoints. In: Sattar, A. (eds) Advanced Topics in Artificial Intelligence. AI 1997. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1342. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-63797-4_72

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-63797-4_72

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-63797-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-69649-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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