# Catalogue of Artificial Intelligence Techniques

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## Auto-epistemic Logic

### Categories: Inference and Reasoning , Knowledge Representation

Author(s): Colin Phillips

Auto-epistemic logic is a logic for modelling the beliefs of agents who reflect on their own beliefs. It can express statements such as `If I do not believe that $p$ is true then $q$ is true'. It characterises the beliefs that an ideally rational agent would be entitled to hold on the basis of such statements. The most distinctive feature of auto-epistemic logic is that it is a Non-monotonic Logic: the set of basic beliefs can be modified with time. An agent who takes as a premise `If I do not believe that $p$ is true, then $q$ is true' and who does not believe that$p$

is true, will believe that $q$ is true. If later he were to adopt the premise $p$

as an additional belief then he would no longer be justified in believing that $q$ holds. See also Logics of Knowledge and Belief.

### References:

• Moore, R.C., Auto-epistemic logic, Non-standard Logics for Automated reasoning (Smets, P., Mamdani, E.H., et. al. , ed.), Academic Press, London, 1988, pp.105--136.