Constraint Optimization using Preference Logics: A New Role for Modal Logic.
Allen L. Brown, Surya Mantha, Toshiro Wakayama · 1993
A family of modal logics of preference is presented. It is argued that modeling preference as a modal operator captures it at the correct level of granularity and extracts the logical core of the notion of preference. Next, the problem that motivated the development of preference logics is discussed in some detail. The paper ends with a list of other areas in which preference logics have shown promise. 1 Introduction The purpose of this paper is to outline the development of a logical theory of preference. While the work was motivated by an extremely concrete problem, the resulting theory turns out to be surprisingly general and powerful in its scope, applicability and expressive power. In the first half of this paper, we introduce a family of modal logics of preference followed by a very cursory look at the historical approaches to preference in the literature of decision theory, philosophical logic and artificial intelligence. Following that, we describe -- perforce briefly -- the p...