Clarity in Non-Monotonic Logic
Harald Bastiaanse

Abstract:
It is telling that historically mathematics and even the sciences have
often made great leaps forward by switching to new formalisms and
paradigms in terms of which the phenomena under study were easier to
express and comprehend. Evidently unclarity can stifle a field, or at
least prevent readily available results from being picked up on when
needed.

In this thesis we will ascertain as much by looking into the field of
non-monotonic logic. We take a look at a system for default rules that
has great empirical adequacy but also no lack of complexity, and that
has thus remained basically unnoticed for a long time. And exactly as
our little theory suggests, a fruitful application presents itself
immediately after we've rephrased the system to increase its
clarity...