Abstract
This paper1 contains a proposal for a knowledge representation formalism based on a taxonomy of theories. It aims at clarifying the notions of inheritance and dependency among properties and classes, which are mixed together in the “inheritance networks” formalism, while also providing more expressiveness.
A model-theoretic semantics in terms of sets of individuals is presented, which is parametric on the characterization of specificity. The case most thoroughly presented is rule inheritance which builds on the assumption that only facts have the force to impose overriding. A double denotation for classes, corresponding to two nested sets, is the key for interpreting defaults and exceptions.
The problem of ambiguity propagation in the resulting system is addressed in the context of a discussion of the relationship between it and inheritance nets.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Ronald J. Brachman. I lied about the trees or, defaults and definitions in knowledge representation. AI Magazine, 1985.
Gabriel David and António Porto. Semantics of property inheritance in a hierarchic system with explicit negation. In Luís Moniz Pereira and António Porto, editors, EPIA '91 5th Portuguese Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Berlin, 1991. Springer-Verlag.
Gabriel David and António Porto. Rule-based inheritance in structured logic programming. In Edson Carvalho Filho, editor, IX Simpósio Brasileiro de Inteligência Artificial, page 144, Rio de Janeiro, 1992. Sociedade Brasileira de Computação.
Michael Gelfond and Vladimir Lifschitz. Logic programs with classical negation. In David H. D. Warren and Peter Szeredi, editors, Logic Programming, Cambridge, MA, 1990. MIT Press.
John F. Horty and Richmond H. Thomason. Mixing strict and defeasible inheritance. In Proc. Seventh National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Los Altos CA, 1988. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.
John F. Horty, Richmond H. Thomason, and David S. Touretzky. A skeptical theory of inheritance in nonmonotonic semantic networks. In Proc. Sixth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Los Altos CA, 1987. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.
Robert Kowalski and Fariba Sadri. Logic programs with exceptions. In David H. D. Warren and Peter Szeredi, editors, Logic Programming, Cambridge, MA, 1990. MIT Press.
Francis G. McCabe. An introduction to L&O. In K. R. Apt, J. W. de Bakker, and J. J. M. M. Rutten, editors, Logic Programming Languages: Constraints, Functions and Objects, page 204, Cambridge, MA, 1993. The MIT Press.
Luís Monteiro and António Porto. Syntactic and semantic inheritance in logic programming. In J. Darlington and R. Dietrich, editors, Proc. Phoenix Workshop and Seminar on Declarative Programming, 1991.
David Makinson and Karl Schlechta. Floating conclusions and zombie paths: Two deep difficulties in the directly skeptical approach to defeasible inheritance nets. Artificial Intelligence, 1991.
Erik Sandewall. Nonmonotonic inference rules for multiple inheritance with exceptions. IEEE Proceedings, 10/86.
David S. Touretzky, John F. Horty, and Richmond H. Thomason. A clash of intuitions: the current state of nonmonotonic multiple inheritance systems. In Drew McDermott, editor, Proc. Tenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Los Altos CA, 1987. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.
David S. Touretzky. Implicit ordering of defaults in inheritance systems. In Matthew L. Ginsberg, editor, Readings in Nonmonotonic Reasoning, Los Altos, CA, 1987. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.
David S. Touretzky, Richmond H. Thomason, and John F. Horty. A skeptic's menagerie: Conflictors, preemptors, reinstaters, and zombies in nonomonotonic inheritance. In Proc. Twelfth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Los Altos CA, 1991. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.
Gerd Wagner. Logic programming with strong negation and inexact predicates. Journal of Logic and Computation, 1990.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1993 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
David, G., Porto, A. (1993). Inheritance in a hierarchy of theories. In: Filgueiras, M., Damas, L. (eds) Progress in Artificial Intelligence. EPIA 1993. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 727. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-57287-2_39
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-57287-2_39
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-57287-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-48036-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive