FO(C) and Related Modelling Paradigms

TL;DR

This paper compares C-Log, a language for causal modeling, with first-order logic and related paradigms, highlighting their differences, integration, and applications in object creation and knowledge representation.

Contribution

It introduces FO(C), an integrated language combining C-Log and FO, and analyzes its semantics and relation to other logic programming paradigms.

Findings

FO(C) enables clear and succinct causal models.

FO(C) semantics coincide with E-disjunctive logic programming on certain fragments.

Object creation in FO(C) relates to mathematics, business rules, and databases.

Abstract

Recently, C-Log was introduced as a language for modelling causal processes. Its formal semantics has been defined together with introductory examples, but the study of this language is far from finished. In this paper, we compare C-Log to other declarative modelling languages. More specifically, we compare to first-order logic (FO), and argue that C-Log and FO are orthogonal and that their integration, FO(C), is a knowledge representation language that allows for clear and succinct models. We compare FO(C) to E-disjunctive logic programming with the stable semantics, and define a fragment on which both semantics coincide. Furthermore, we discuss object-creation in FO(C), relating it to mathematics, business rules systems, and data base systems.