Preferential Action Semantics (preliminary Report) Preferential Action Semantics (preliminary Report)

In this paper we propose a new way of considering reasoning about action and change Rather than placing a preferential structure onto the models of logical theories we place such a structure directly on the semantics of the actions involved In this way we obtain a preferential semantics of actions by means of which we can not only deal with several of the traditional problems in this area such as the frame and rami cation problems but can generalize these solutions to a context which includes both nondeterministic and concurrent actions In fact the net result is an integration of semantical and veri cational techniques from the paradigm of imperative and concurrent programs in particular as known from traditional programming with the AI perspective In this paper the main focus is on semantical i e model theoretical issues rather than providing a logical calculus which would be the next step in the endeavor Preferential Action Semantics Preliminary Report John Jules Ch Meyer Intelligent Systems Group Dept of Computer Science Utrecht University P O Box TB Utrecht The Netherlands jj cs ruu nl Patrick Doherty University of Link oping Dept of Computer Science S Link oping Sweden patdo ida liu se