Abduction for (non-ominiscient) agents

Abstract

Among the non-monotonic reasoning processes, abduction is one of the most important. Usually described as the process of looking florexplantions, it has been recognized as one of the most commonly used in our daily activities. Still, the traditional definitions of an abductive problem and an abductive solution mention only theories and formulas, leaving agency out of the picture. Our work proposes a study of abductive reasoning from an epistemic and dynamic perspective, making special emphasis on non-ideal agents. We begin by exploring what an abductive problema is in terms of an agent’s information, and what an abductive solution is in terms of the actions that modify it. Then we explore the different kinds of abductive problems and abductive solutions that arise when we consider agents whose information is not closed under logical consequence, and agents whose reasoning abilities are not complete.