Course Objectives and Outcomes
The goal of this course is to provide motivations, definitions and techinques in support of the usefulness of logic in the effective and efficient modeling of data and knowledge. The course will have succeeded if it stimulates the interested students to continue their career with higher interest into logic-based models for data and knowledge representation in their own field of expertise, and to produce computer-processable solutions of relevant problems.
General Description
The use of logic in computer science is very well-documented. The exponential increase of literature on every area of computer science has forced both definition and use of logical formalisms for knowledge representation and reasoning into greater complexity, and this complexity has in turn necessitated a deeper study of the principles by which logical models may be constucted. It has become more and more apparent, say since the 1989' First International Conference on the Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR-89), that knowledge representation models and reasoning models are only different views of the same common problem.
Different logic-based approaches to data and knowledge representation and reasoning are beginning to converge. It seems therefore useful to try to accelerate this process by trying to provide a survey, as uniform as possible presentation of the whole problem of logic-based modeling of data and knowlege, treating the subject on general theoretical lines, yet filled in with practical examples from real-world scenarios, problems and applications, with a particular attention paid to the borderlines and inter-relationships among all logics presented.
There is as yet no unified theory of logic-based models for data and knowledge representation, and a good deal of practical systems and working devices are not logic-based in their design foundation and unsullied by any logical model. There is nevertheless a real need for the subject to be looked at as a whole.
Suggested Readings
Basic (mainly about PL e FOL)
- A. C. Varzi, J. Nolt, D. Rohatyn, “Logica”, McGraw-Hill Education, 2007
- F. Berto, Logica da zero a Gödel, Laterza, 2008
Mainly about ML
- H. van Ditmarsch (et al.), “Handbook of Epistemic Logic”, College Publications, 2015
- D. Palladino, C. Palladino, “Logiche non classiche”, Carocci editore, 2007
Mainly about DL
- F. Baader, D. Calvanese, D.L. McGuinness, D. Nardi and P.F. Patel-Schneider, “Handbook of Description Logics”, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2002
(See also the Materials page.)
