Commonsense Reasoning

Commonsense Reasoning

by Erik T. Mueller
Released July 2010
Publisher(s): Morgan Kaufmann
ISBN: 9780080476612

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Book description

To endow computers with common sense is one of the major long-term goals of Artificial Intelligence research. One approach to this problem is to formalize commonsense reasoning using mathematical logic. Commonsense Reasoning is a detailed, high-level reference on logic-based commonsense reasoning. It uses the event calculus, a highly powerful and usable tool for commonsense reasoning, which Erik T. Mueller demonstrates as the most effective tool for the broadest range of applications. He provides an up-to-date work promoting the use of the event calculus for commonsense reasoning, and bringing into one place information scattered across many books and papers. Mueller shares the knowledge gained in using the event calculus and extends the literature with detailed event calculus solutions to problems that span many areas of the commonsense world.
  • Covers key areas of commonsense reasoning including action, change, defaults, space, and mental states.
  • The first full book on commonsense reasoning to use the event calculus.
  • Contextualizes the event calculus within the framework of commonsense reasoning, introducing the event calculus as the best method overall.
  • Focuses on how to use the event calculus formalism to perform commonsense reasoning, while existing papers and books examine the formalisms themselves.
  • Includes fully worked out proofs and circumscriptions for every example.

Table of contents

  1. Cover image
  2. Title page
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Praise for Commonsense Reasoning
  5. About the Author
  6. Copyright
  7. Dedication
  8. Foreword
  9. Preface
  10. Acknowledgments
  11. Chapter 1: Introduction
    1. 1.1 What Is Commonsense Reasoning?
    2. 1.2 Key Issues of Commonsense Reasoning
    3. 1.3 Brief History of Commonsense Reasoning
    4. 1.4 The Event Calculus
    5. Bibliographic Notes
  12. PART I: Foundations
    1. Chapter 2: The Event Calculus
      1. 2.1 First-Order Logic
      2. 2.2 Event Calculus Basics
      3. 2.3 Event Calculus Axiomatizations
      4. 2.4 Reification
      5. 2.5 Conditions
      6. 2.6 Circumscription
      7. 2.7 Domain Descriptions
      8. 2.8 Reasoning Types
      9. Bibliographic Notes
      10. 2.9 Exercises
  13. PART II: Commonsense Phenomena
    1. Chapter 3: The Effects of Events
      1. 3.1 Positive and Negative Effect Axioms
      2. 3.3 Preconditions
      3. 3.4 State Constraints
      4. Bibliographic Notes
      5. Exercises
    2. Chapter 4: The Triggering of Events
      1. 4.1 Trigger Axioms
      2. 4.2 Preventing Repeated Triggering
      3. 4.3 Triggered Fluents
      4. Bibliographic Notes
      5. Exercises
    3. Chapter 5: The Commonsense Law of Inertia
      1. 5.1 Representation of the Commonsense Law of Inertia
      2. 5.2 Representing Release from the Commonsense Law of Inertia
      3. 5.3 Release Axioms
      4. Bibliographic Notes
      5. Exercises
    4. Chapter 6: Indirect Effects of Events
      1. 6.1 Effect Axioms
      2. 6.2 Primitive and Derived Fluents
      3. 6.3 Release Axioms and State Constraints
      4. 6.4 Effect Constraints
      5. 6.5 Causal Constraints
      6. 6.6 Trigger Axioms
      7. Bibliographic Notes
      8. Exercises
    5. Chapter 7: Continuous Change
      1. 7.1 Trajectory Axioms
      2. 7.2 Antitrajectory Axioms
      3. 7.3 Using AntiTrajectory Instead of Releases
      4. Bibliographic Notes
      5. Exercises
    6. Chapter 8: Concurrent Events
      1. 8.1 Restricting Concurrency
      2. 8.2 Cumulative and Canceling Effects
      3. Bibliographic Notes
      4. Exercises
    7. Chapter 9: Nondeterministic Effects of Events
      1. 9.1 Determining Fluents
      2. 9.2 Disjunctive Event Axioms
      3. Bibliographic Notes
      4. Exercises
  14. PART III: Commonsense Domains
    1. Chapter 10: Space
      1. 10.1 Relational Space
      2. 10.2 Metric Space
      3. 10.3 Object Identity
      4. Bibliographic Notes
      5. Exercises
    2. Chapter 11: The Mental States of Agents
      1. 11.1 Beliefs, Goals, and Plans
      2. 11.2 Emotions
      3. Bibliographic Notes
      4. Exercises
  15. PART IV: Default Reasoning
    1. Chapter 12: Default Reasoning
      1. 12.1 Atemporal Default Reasoning
      2. 12.2 Temporal Default Reasoning
      3. 12.3 Default Reasoning Method
      4. 12.4 Defaults and the Qualification Problem
      5. 12.5 Default Events and Properties
      6. Bibliographic Notes
      7. Exercises
  16. PART V: Programs and Applications
    1. Chapter 13: The Discrete Event Calculus Reasoner
      1. 13.1 Discrete Event Calculus Reasoner Architecture
      2. 13.2 Encoding Satisfiability Problems
      3. 13.3 Simple Examples
      4. 13.4 Example: Telephone
      5. 13.5 Discrete Event Calculus Reasoner Language
      6. Bibliographic Notes
      7. Exercises
    2. Chapter 14: Applications
      1. 14.1 Business Systems
      2. 14.2 Natural Language Understanding
      3. 14.3 Vision
      4. Bibliographic Notes
      5. Exercises
  17. PART VI: Logical and Nonlogical Methods
    1. Chapter 15: Logics for Commonsense Reasoning
      1. 15.1 The Situation Calculus
      2. 15.2 The Features and Fluents Framework
      3. 15.3 Action Languages
      4. 15.4 The Fluent Calculus
      5. Bibliographic Notes
      6. Exercises
    2. Chapter 16: Nonlogical Methods for Commonsense Reasoning
      1. 16.1 Qualitative Reasoning
      2. 16.2 Analogical Processing
      3. 16.3 Probabilistic Reasoning
      4. 16.4 Society of Mind
      5. Bibliographic Notes
      6. Exercises
  18. PART VII: Conclusion
    1. Chapter 17: Conclusion
      1. 17.1 What Was Accomplished?
      2. 17.2 Where Is This Leading?
      3. 17.3 Closing Remarks
      4. Bibliographic Notes
  19. PART VIII: Appendices
    1. Appendix A: Logical Foundations
    2. Appendix B: Equivalence of EC and DEC
    3. Appendix C: Events with Duration
    4. Appendix D: Answers to Selected Exercises
  20. References
  21. Index

Product information

  • Title: Commonsense Reasoning
  • Author(s): Erik T. Mueller
  • Release date: July 2010
  • Publisher(s): Morgan Kaufmann
  • ISBN: 9780080476612