On belief change in ontology evolution

Article type: Other

Authors: Flouris, Giorgos

Affiliations: Institute of Computer Science, FO.R.T.H., P.O. Box 1385, GR 71110, Heraklion, Greece and Department of Computer Science, University of Crete, P.O. Box 2208, GR 71409, Heraklion, Greece E-mail: fgeo@ics.forth.gr

Abstract: We study the feasibility of applying the dominating paradigm of belief revision, the AGM theory, to logics outside its original scope, with special emphasis given on logics used for ontological representation in the Semantic Web. Such an application would allow determining whether a proposed change operator (e.g., an ontology evolution algorithm) behaves rationally or not. We give a number of interesting theoretical results related to the (generalized) AGM theory and show that our work can find important applications in dynamic environments employing non-classical logical formalisms. We focus on a particular such environment, namely ontology evolution in the Semantic Web, and show how our work can be used to provide ontology evolution researchers with powerful formal tools from the research area of belief revision.

Keywords: Belief change, AGM theory, AGM postulates, ontology change, ontology evolution, Description Logics

Journal: AI Communications, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 395-397, 2006