Merging information under constraints: a qualitative framework

We consider the problem of merging several belief bases in the presence of integrity constraints. We propose a logical characterization of operators having a majority behaviour or a consensual one. Then we give a representation theorem in terms of pre-orders on interpretations. We show the close connection between belief revision and merging operators and we show that our proposal extends the pure merging case (i.e. without integrity constraints) we study in a previous work. Finally we show that Liberatore and Schaerf commutative revision operators can be seen as a special case of merging.

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