CIRCUMSCRIPTION-A FORM OF NONMONOTONIC REASONING

John McCarthy
Computer Science Department
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305
jmc@cs.stanford.edu
http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/

1986

Abstract:

Humans and intelligent computer programs must often jump to the conclusion that the objects they can determine to have certain properties or relations are the only objects that do. Circumscription formalizes such conjectural reasoning.

• INTRODUCTION. THE QUALIFICATION PROBLEM
• THE NEED FOR NONMONOTONIC REASONING
• MISSIONARIES AND CANNIBALS
• THE FORMALISM OF CIRCUMSCRIPTION
• DOMAIN CIRCUMSCRIPTION
• THE MODEL THEORY OF PREDICATE CIRCUMSCRIPTION
• MORE ON BLOCKS
• REMARKS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• References
• About this document ...