From Doyle to AGM: A Survey and an Implementation Roadmap for Belief Change

This article presents a targeted narrative review establishing the historical and theoretical foundations for computational belief change implementation. Seeded by Doyle and London’s foundational 1980 taxonomy, we trace the evolution of belief revision from computational origins through the theoretical transformation of the Alchourrón, Gärdenfors, and Makinson (AGM) framework to contemporary approaches. Our analysis demonstrates how pre-AGM computational pragmatism relates to AGM theoretical constructs, revealing both continuities and transformations across this evolution. We analyze how each taxonomical category evolved in the post-AGM era, identifying the theoretical foundations and historical precedents that inform contemporary implementation challenges. This foundation enables subsequent research into robust computational blueprints that synthesize historical insights with formal guarantees, providing the baseline for systematic implementation analysis and engineering-focused belief change research.