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The Principle of Conditional Preservation in Belief Revision

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Foundations of Information and Knowledge Systems (FoIKS 2002)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2284))

Abstract

Although the crucial role of if-then-conditionals for the dynamics of knowledge has been known for several decades, they do not seem to fit well in the framework of classical belief revision theory. In particular, the propositional paradigm of minimal change guiding the AGM-postulates of belief revision proved to be inadequate for preserving conditional beliefs under revision. In this paper, we present a thorough axiomatization of a principle of conditional preservation in a very general framework, considering the revision of epistemic states by sets of conditionals. This axiomatization is based on a non-standard approach to conditionals, which focuses on their dynamic aspects, and uses the newly introduced notion of conditional valuation functions as representations of epistemic states. In this way, probabilistic revision as well as possibilistic revision and the revision of ranking functions can all be dealt with within one framework. Moreover, we show that our approach can also be applied in a merely qualitative environment, extending AGM-style revision to properly handling conditional beliefs.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, FernUniversität Hagen, P.O. Box 940, D-58084, Hagen, Germany

    Gabriele Kern-Isberner

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  1. Gabriele Kern-Isberner
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Information Systems (E814), Technical University of Vienna, Karlsplatz 13, 1040, Wien, Austria

    Thomas Eiter

  2. Department of Information Systems, Massey University, Private Bag 11 222, Palmerston North, New Zealand

    Klaus-Dieter Schewe

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Kern-Isberner, G. (2002). The Principle of Conditional Preservation in Belief Revision. In: Eiter, T., Schewe, KD. (eds) Foundations of Information and Knowledge Systems. FoIKS 2002. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2284. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45758-5_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45758-5_8

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-43220-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45758-9

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