Theoretical Aspects of Logic Programming and Nonmonotonic Reasoning.

Dr. Pascal Hitzler

Seminar, WS 2003/2004

Nonmonotonic logics provide established approaches to knowledge representation and reasoning in artificial intelligence. They were invented more than 20 years ago with the intention to capture aspects of human and commonsense reasoning which are not treated satisfactorily by "monotonic" logics (including classical logic). One of their prominent features is that they are not monotonic - hence the name - in the sense that logical consequences from a knowledge base (Tweety is a bird, and consequently is able to fly) may have to be retracted when additional knowledge is added (Somebody tells us that Tweety is a penguin).

Recently, efficient implementations of nonmonotonic reasoning systems have been established. Among the most popular ones are currently smodels and dlv, see www.uni-koblenz.de/ag-ki/LP/lp_systems.html. At the same time, the need for sound theoretical underpinnings of nonmonotonic logics becomes more and more apparent.

In this seminar, we will study theoretical aspects of nonmonotonic logics and systems, including relationships with classical logic(s), axiomatic approaches, comparison of semantics, etc.

Prerequisite: Passed exam in ICL or Logik.

Assessment: Each student is required to ...

Each student will get a mark based on the presentation (2/3) and the manuscript (1/3).

Organization:

The material covered in the seminar is directly related to my research interests, so there is the possibility of doing projects or theses in the subject area building on the topics of the seminar.

Schedule of the talks

Some finished manuscripts

Some topics which could be covered in the seminar

How to prepare the seminar talk and the manuscript

Information on LATEX

Enquiries

All questions should be directed to Pascal Hitzler under


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