Logics for Action

Abstract. Logics of action, for reasoning about the effects of state change, and logics of belief, accounting for belief revision and update, have much in common. Furthermore, we may undertake an action because we hold a particular belief, and revise our beliefs in the light of observed consequences of an action. So studies of these two aspects are inevitably intertwined. However, we argue, a clear separation of the two is helpful in understanding their interactions. We give a semantic presentation of such a separation, introducing a semantic setting that supports one logic for describing the effects of actions, which are modeled as changing the values of particular atomic properties, or fluents, and another for expressing more complex facts or beliefs about the world. We use a simple state-logic, to account for state change, and show how it can be integrated with a variety of domain-logics, of fact or belief, for reasoning about the world. State- and domain-logics are linked, syntactically and semantically; but separate. The state-logic, our logic for action, is quantified propositional logic. Bounded existential propositional quantification is used to specify which literals may b