A formal procedure for finding contradictions into a set of rules

Several fields of knowledge management operate by using rules. Many example arise in Data Mining and Database Theory, but also in the fields of Normative or Regulation. A major issue is the presence of contradictions into a set of rules, since this usually makes such a set unusable. Each contradiction should therefore be located and removed. We present here an automatic procedure for solving this difficult problem. A main advantage is that this procedure works only at the formal level, so it can be performed without the need of going into the semantic meaning of the rules under analysis. A detailed and realistic example of application of the proposed procedure is given and commented