Grounded Consequence for Defeasible Logic

This is a title on the foundations of defeasible logic, which explores the formal properties of everyday reasoning patterns whereby people jump to conclusions, reserving the right to retract them in the light of further information. Although technical in nature the book contains sections that outline basic issues by means of intuitive and simple examples. This book is primarily targeted at philosophers interested in the foundations of defeasible logic, logicians, and specialists in artificial intelligence and theoretical computer science.

• Interesting and innovative technical proposal in the foundations of defeasible reasoning • Introductory sections accessible to the general reader • Intuitive examples used to illustrate and motivate the main points

Contents

1. The logic of defeasible inference; 2. Cyclic networks; 3. General extensions; 4. Defeasible consequence.

Review

‘Antonelli applies some of the techniques developed in Kripke’s approach to the paradoxes to generalize some of the most popular formalisms for nonmonotonic reasoning, particularly Default Logic. The result is a complex and sophisticated theory that is technically solid and attractive from an intuitive standpoint.’

– John Horty, Committee on Philosophy and the Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park