Knowledge Representation and Defeasible Reasoning

This series will include monographs and collections of studies devoted to the investigation and exploration of knowledge, information, and data­ processing systems of all kinds, no matter whether human, (other) ani­ mal, or machine. Its scope is intended to span the full range of interests from classical problems in the philosophy of mind and philosophical psy­ chology through issues in cognitive psychology and sociobiology (concerning the mental capabilities of other species) to ideas related to artificial intelli­ gence and computer science. While primary emphasis will be placed upon theoretical, conceptual, and epistemological aspects of these problems and domains, empirical, experimental, and methodological studies will also ap­ pear from time to time. The present volume provides a collection of studies that focus on some of the central problems within the domain of artificial intelligence. These difficulties fall into four principal areas: defeasible reasoning (including the frame problem as apart), ordinary language (and the representation prob­ lems that it generates), the revision of beliefs (and its rules of inference), and knowledge representation (and the logical problems that are encountered there). These papers make original contributions to each of these areas of inquiry and should be of special interest to those who understand the crucial role that is played by questions of logical form. They vividly illustrate the benefits that can emerge from collaborative efforts involving scholars from linguistics, philosophy, computer science, and AI. J. H. F.

Inhalt

I / Defeasible Reasoning and the Frame Problem.- Defeasible Logic and The Frame Problem.- Monotonic Solution of The Frame Problem in The Situation Calculus: An Efficient Method for Worlds with Fully Specified Actions.- A Framework for Reasoning with Defaults.- The Frame Problem and Relevant Predication.- II / Representation Problems and Ordinary Language.- Thing and Thought.- Bare Plurals as Plural Indefinite Noun Phrases.- Seeing To it That: A Canonical Form for Agentives.- Speaker Plans, Linguistic Contexts, and Indirect Speech Acts.- III / Inference Rules and Belief Revision.- Belief Revision, Non-Monotonic Reasoning, and the Ramsey Test.- Jeffrey's Rule, Passage of Experience, and Neo-Bayesianism.- Two Perspectives on Consensus for (Bayesian) Inference and Decisions.- Conditionals and Conditional Probabilities: Three Triviality Theorems.- IV / Logical Problems in Representing Knowledge.- Inheritance Theory and Path-Based Reasoning: An Introduction.- Defeasible Specification of Utilities.- to A Logic of Assertions.- A New Normative Theory of Probabilistic Logic.- Index of Names.- Index of Subjects.