A semantic view on reasoning about priorities (extended abstract)
Henry Prakken · 1995
This paper gives a logical analysis in semantic terms of reasoning about preference relations. A method is proposed for extending logics for reasoning with prioritised information with means to express information about priorities as premises, and for defining the logical consequences of such premises. The method is first presented in general terms and then applied to two existing systems, prioritised default logic and a model-theoretic formulation of pointwise circumscription; also its application to argument-based systems is discussed. Finally, the analysis is applied to a realistic example from legal reasoning. 1 Introduction In the logical study of common-sense reasoning the need for logics that can handle prioritised information is widely acknowledged. Accordingly, many prioritised logics (e.g. [1, 3, 10, 11]) have been developed. A severe restriction of them, however, is that they only formalise the use of priorities in resolving contradictions. Yet in many domains preference re...