Situations, Si! Situation Terms, No!

The situation calculus, as proposed by McCarthy and Hayes, and developed over the last decade by Reiter and co-workers, is reconsidered. A new logical variant is proposed that captures much of the expressive power of the original, but where certain technical results are much more easily proven. This is illustrated using two existing non-trivial results: the regression theorem and the determinacy of knowledge theorem of Reiter. We also obtain a regression theorem for knowledge, and show how to reduce reasoning about knowledge and action to non-epistemic non-dynamic reasoning about the initial situation.

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