Iterated Ontology Revision by Reinterpretation

Abstract: Iterated applications of belief change operators are essential for different scenarios such as that of ontology evolution where new information is not presented at once but only in piecemeal fashion within a sequence. I discuss iterated applications of so called reinterpretation operators that trace conflicts between ontologies back to the ambiguous of symbols and that provide conflict resolution strategies with bridging axioms. The discussion centers on adaptations of the classical iteration postulates according to Darwiche and Pearl. The main result of the paper is that reinterpretation operators fulfill the postulates for sequences containing only atomic triggers. For complex triggers, a fulfillment is not guaranteed and indeed there are different reasons for the different postulates why they should not be fulfilled in the particular scenario of ontology revision with well developed ontologies.