Exploring the rationality of some syntactic merging operators

Abstract

Most merging operators are defined by semantics methods which have very high computational complexity. In order to have operators with a lower computational complexity, some merging operators defined in a syntactical way have been proposed. In this work we define some syntactical merging operators and explore its rationality properties. To do that we constrain the belief bases to be sets of formulas very close to logic programs and the underlying logic is defined through forward chaining rule (Modus Ponens). We propose two types of operators: arbitration operators when the inputs are only two bases and fusion with integrity constraints operators. We introduce a set of postulates inspired on postulates LS, proposed by Liberatore and Shaerf and then we analyze the first class of operators through these postulates. We also introduce a set of postulates inspired on postulates KP, proposed by Konieczny and Pino Ṕerez and then we analyze the second class of operators through these postulates. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012.