On the Relationship Between Logic Programming and Nonmonotonic Reasoning

Abstract

In spite of the existence of a close relationship between logic programming and non-monotonic reasoning, in the past the two research areas have progressed largely independently of each other. Recently, however, a new declarative semantics of logic programs has been proposed and it has been shown to be equivalent to suitable forms of four major non-monotonic formalisms: McCarthy's circumscription, Reiter's closed world assumption, Moore's autoepistemic logic and Reiter's default logic. The importance of these results stems not only from the fact that they shed new light on the relationship between logic programming and nonmonotonic reasoning, but also from the fact that they establish a close relationship between four major formalizations of non-monotonic reasoning for an important class of theories.