Default reasoning in a terminologal logic.
Computers and Artificial Intelligence 14(3),
pages 225--251, 1995.
Abstract:
Terminological Logics (TLs) are knowledge representation formalisms of considerable
applicative interest, as they are specifically oriented to the vast class of application
domains that are describable by means of taxonomic organizations of complex objects.
Although the field of TLs has lately been an active area of investigation, only few
researchers have addressed the problem of extending these logics with the ability
to perform default reasoning. Such extensions would prove of paramount applicative
value, as many application domains may be formalized by means of monotonic TLs only
at the price of oversimplification. In this paper we show how we can effectively
integrate terminological reasoning and default reasoning, yielding a terminological
default logic. The kind of default reasoning we embed in our TL is reminiscent
of Reiter's Default Logic, but overcomes some of its drawbacks by subscribing to
the ``implicit'' handling of exceptions typical of the Multiple Inheritance Networks
with Exceptions proposed by Touretzky and others.