A test battery for rational database updating

摘要

A test battery is proposed that can be used to characterize the behaviour of updating systems. The battery is based on 20 rationality postulates of the types developed in studies of theory change and nonmonotonic reasoning. These postulates are arranged into seven sequences with increasing strength, each of which measures the degree of conformity with a basic desideratum for database updating. Some of these desiderata are partly in conflict, and they cannot all be satisfied to the highest degree. Mathematical characterizations are given of how far they can be combined.