Knowledge, action, and Cartesian situations in the situation calculus

Ronald P. A. Petrick

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract / Description of output

We formalize the notion of a Cartesian situation in the situation calculus, a property that imposes strong structural conditions on the configuration of a set of possible worlds. Focusing on action theories that use the standard Scherl and Levesque account of knowledge and action, we show how Cartesian situations give rise to a set of decomposition properties for simplifying epistemic formulae (in particular, certain disjunctive and existentially quantified formulae) into equivalent components that only mention fluent literals. Moreover, we describe certain expressive classes of action theories that preserve the Cartesian property through action. This work offers the possibility of identifying action theories that can be compiled into alternative accounts of knowledge with similar representational restrictions, but without possible worlds.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationKnowing, Reasoning, and Acting: Essays in Honour of Hector J. Levesque
EditorsGerhard Lakemeyer, Sheila A. McIlraith
PublisherCollege Publications
Number of pages20
Publication statusPublished - 2011

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