Logic for Artificial Intelligence

Full course description

Logics form the formal foundation of knowledge representation and reasoning, which is a fundamental topic in Artificial Intelligence. Logics play a role as an analysis aid and as a knowledge-representation formalism. Moreover, the semantics of logics enables us to evaluate the intended meanings of knowledge representation formalisms, and the correctness and completeness of reasoning processes.

Humans make assumptions in their day-to-day reasoning. Examples of reasoning with assumptions are: common sense reasoning, model-based diagnosis, legal argumentation, agent communication and negotiation, and so on and so forth. The assumptions humans use in their reasoning may be incorrect in the light of new information. This implies that conclusions may have to be withdrawn in the light of new information. Therefore this form of reasoning is called non-monotonic reasoning and the underlying logics are called non-monotonic logics.

The course will cover model-based diagnosis as an application of reasoning with assumption, standard logics extended with defeasible rules, argumentation systems, the semantics of reasoning with assumptions and defeasible rules, and closure properties of the reasoning systems.

This is an optional course: Third year students choose three electives per period out of the optional courses during period 1 and 2.