---
title: "An Evidence-based Framework for a Theory of Inheritance"
authors:
  - "Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan"
  - "Michael Kifer"
doi: ""
url: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1989/175"
pdf: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1989/0175.pdf"
venue: "Proceedings of the Eleventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence"
year: 1989
pages: "1093-1097"
track: "Commonsense Reasoning"
keywords:
---

# An Evidence-based Framework for a Theory of Inheritance

Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Michael Kifer

*Proceedings of the Eleventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence*, pages 1093-1097.

## Abstract

We present an approach to formalizing nonmonotonic multiple inheritance networks by combining concepts from logic programming and multi-valued logics in a uniform framework. A Horn-clause logic language is used for specifying inheritance networks. This allows a natural representation of class-subclass hierarchies and ambiguous inheritance networks. It also provides means for resolving ambiguities resulting from the network topology, but which are not .inherent to the problem. We provide a model theory for the language and show how a unique intended model can be associated with every inheritance network. This model resembles the unique extension obtained in the skeptical theory of inheritance [Hor-87], but is more general. Finally, we present an algorithm which realizes the aforementioned semantics.