Commitment Logic

Origin. Walton, Krabbe (1995), Singh, Fornara. Dialogue commitments. Speech acts. Social semantics. Foundation of agent communication.

Models. Commitment stores. Creation and cancellation. Dialogue games. Agent communication.

Formalism.

Commitment: C(x, y, p): x committed to y that p. Social fact. Public record. Cancellable.

Operations: Create(x, y, p): x commits to y that p. Cancel(x, y, p): x withdraws commitment. Discharge: p becomes true.

Commitment store: CS: set of active commitments. Updated by moves. Public record. Dialogue state.

Conditional commitment: CC(x, y, p, q): if p then C(x, y, q). Triggers on antecedent. Contractual.

Dialogue rules: Permissible moves given CS. Obligations from commitments. Violation conditions.

Assertion: Assert(x, p) creates C(x, H, p). H = hearer(s). Commitment to defend.

Challenge: Challenge(y, p) challenges C(x, H, p). Requires defense. Dialogue obligation.

Singh's semantics: Temporal: commitments over time. Base: what commitment depends on. Operations: create, cancel, release, delegate.

Agent communication: ACL semantics via commitments. Observable, verifiable. Social rather than mental.

Symbols.

Metatheory. Social semantics. Dialogue dynamics. Operations. Temporal evolution.

Applies to. Multi-agent systems. Dialogue. Contracts. Agent communication.

Limitations. Formalization varies. Cancellation conditions. Nested commitments. Standardization lacking.