Constructing Markov Logic Networks from First-Order Default Rules

Expert knowledge can often be represented using default rules of the form “if A then typically B”. In a probabilistic framework, such default rules can be seen as constraints on what should be derivable by MAP-inference. We exploit this idea for constructing a Markov logic networkM from a set of first-order default rules D, such that MAP inference fromM exactly corresponds to default reasoning from D, where we view first-order default rules as templates for the construction of propositional default rules. In particular, to construct appropriate Markov logic networks, we lift three standard methods for default reasoning. The resulting Markov logic networks could then be refined based on available training data. Our method thus offers a convenient way of using expert knowledge for constraining or guiding the process of learning Markov logic networks.