---
title: "Explaining Subsumption in Description Logics"
authors:
  - "Deborah L. McGuinness"
  - "Alexander Borgida"
doi: ""
url: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1995/106"
pdf: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1995/0106.pdf"
venue: "Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence"
year: 1995
pages: "816-820"
track: "Knowledge Representation"
keywords:
---

# Explaining Subsumption in Description Logics

Deborah L. McGuinness, Alexander Borgida

*Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence*, pages 816-820.

## Abstract

This paper explores the explanation of subsumption reasoning in Description Logics that are implemented using normalization methods, focusing on the perspective of knowledge engineers. The notion of explanation is specified using a proof-theoretic framework for presenting the inferences supported in these systems. The problem of overly long explanations is addressed by decomposing them into smaller, independent steps, using the notions of "atomic description" and "atomic justification". Implementation aspects are explored by considering the design space and some desiderata for explanation modules. This approach has been implemented for the CLASSIC knowledge representation system.