| Non-monotonic Logic |
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DEFAULT REASONING An example of a default assumption is that the typical bird flies. As a result, if a given animal is known to be a bird, and nothing else is known, it can be assumed to be able to fly. This fact must however be retracted if it is later learned that the considered animal is a penguin. This example shows that a logic that models default reasoning should not be monotonic. Logics formalizing default reasoning can be roughly divided in two categories: logics able to deal with arbitrary default assumptions ( Default Logic , Defeasible Logic , and Answer Set Programming ) and logics that formalize the specific default assumption that facts that are not known to be true can be assumed false by default ( Closed World Assumption and Circumscription ). ABDUCTIVE REASONING Abductive Reasoning is the process of deriving the most likely explanations of the known facts. An abductive logic should not be monotonic because the most likely explanations are not necessarily correct. For example, the most likely explanation for seeing wet grass is that it rained; however, this explanation has to be retracted when learning that the real cause of the grass being wet was a sprinkler. Since the old explanation (it rained) is retracted because of the addition of a piece of knowledge (a sprinkler was active), any logic that models explanations is non-monotonic. REASONING ABOUT KNOWLEDGE If a logic includes formulae that mean that something is not known, this logic should not be monotonic. Indeed, learning something that was previously not known leads to the removal of the formula specifying that this piece of knowledge is not known. This second change (a removal caused by an addition) violates the condition of monotonicity. A logic for reasoning about knowledge is the Autoepistemic Logic . BELIEF REVISION Belief Revision is the process of changing beliefs to accommodate a new belief that might be inconsistent with the old ones. In the assumption that the new belief is correct, some of the old ones have to be retracted in order to maintain consistency. This retraction in response to an addition of a new belief makes any logic for belief revision to be non-monotonic. The belief revision approach is alternative to Paraconsistent Logics , which tolerate inconsistency rather than attempting to remove it. SEE ALSO
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