Explaining inconsistencies in OWL ontologies

Matthew Horridge, Bijan Parsia, Ulrike Sattler

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedingConference contribution

    Abstract

    Justifications play a central role as the basis for explaining entailments in OWL ontologies. While techniques for computing justifications for entailments in consistent ontologies are theoretically and practically well-understood, little is known about the practicalities of computing justifications for inconsistent ontologies. This is despite the fact that justifications are important for repairing inconsistent ontologies, and can be used as a basis for paraconsistent reasoning. This paper presents algorithms, optimisations, and experiments in this area. Surprisingly, it turns out that justifications for inconsistent ontologies are more "difficult" to compute and are often more "numerous" than justifications for entailments in consistent ontologies: whereas it is always possible to compute some justifications, it is often not possible to compute all justifications for real world inconsistent ontologies. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)|Lect. Notes Comput. Sci.
    PublisherSpringer Nature
    Pages124-137
    Number of pages13
    Volume5785
    ISBN (Print)3642043879, 9783642043871
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2009
    Event3rd International Conference on Scalable Uncertainty Management, SUM 2009 - Washington, DC
    Duration: 1 Jul 2009 → …

    Publication series

    NameLecture Notes in Computer Science

    Conference

    Conference3rd International Conference on Scalable Uncertainty Management, SUM 2009
    CityWashington, DC
    Period1/07/09 → …

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