Constraint satisfaction and decision under uncertainty based on qualitative possibility theory

This paper surveys the modeling capabilities of qualitative possibility theory in decision analysis for the representation and the aggregation of preferences, for the treatment of uncertainty and for the handling of situations similar to previously encountered ones. “Qualitative” here means that we restrict ourselves to linearly ordered valuation sets (only the ordering of the grades is meaningful) for the assessment of preferences, uncertainty and similarity. Moreover all the evaluations are referred to the same valuation set (commensurability assumption). Such a qualitative structure is poor but not very demanding from an elicitation point of view; however it is sufficient for giving birth to a valuable set of modeling tools