Abstract
This paper is about a fundamental aspect of intentional action, namely the process of goal formation. Existing formal theories of agents are found essentially inadequate to account for the formation of new goals and intentions of the agent; on the other hand, the formation of new goals is often viewed as an essential feature of autonomous agents. Autonomous goal-formation is described thanks to the interplay between existing (built-in) goals and new beliefs. A general rule for goal formation is then formally expressed in terms of a language (FORM) developed for treating properties of autonomous agents. More specific applications of this rule to the social domain are examined, in particular to conformity and help.
The research is partially supported by ESPRIT BRA 8319 ModelAge.
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Dignum, F., Conte, R. (1998). Intentional agents and goal formation. In: Singh, M.P., Rao, A., Wooldridge, M.J. (eds) Intelligent Agents IV Agent Theories, Architectures, and Languages. ATAL 1997. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1365. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0026762
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0026762
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