Simply Logical - Intelligent Reasoning
Logical Intelligent Reasoning by Example
This is a book about intelligent reasoning. Reasoning is the process of drawing conclusions; intelligent reasoning is the kind of reasoning performed by humans. This is not to say that this book is about the psychological aspects of human reasoning: rather, it discusses methods to implement intelligent reasoning by means of Prolog programs. The book is written from the shared viewpoints of Computational Logic, which aims at automating various kinds of reasoning, and Artificial Intelligence, which seeks to implement aspects of intelligent behaviour on a computer. The combination of these two viewpoints is a distinguishing feature of this book, which I think gives it a unique place among the many related books available
Who should read this book
While writing this book, I had three kinds of readers in mind: Artificial Intelligence researchers or practitioners, Logic Programming researchers or practitioners, and students (advanced undergraduate or graduate level) in both fields. The reader working in Artificial Intelligence will find a detailed treatment of how the power of logic can be used to solve some of her problems. It is a common prejudice among many practitioners of Artificial Intelligence that logic is a merely theoretical device, with limited significance when it comes to tackling practical problems. It is my hope that themany detailed programs in this book, which perform important tasks such as natural language interpretation, abductive and inductive reasoning, and reasoning by default, help to fight this unjust prejudice. On the other hand, those acquainted with Logic Programming will be interested in the practical side of many topics that get a mainly theoretical treatment in the literature. Indeed, many advanced programs presented and explained in this book are not, in a didactic form, available elsewhere.
Logic and Logic Programming
Logic Programming is the name of a programming paradigm which was developed in the 70s. Rather than viewing a computer program as a step-by-step description of an algorithm, the program is conceived as a logical theory, and a procedure call is viewed as a theorem of which the truth needs to be established. Thus, executing a program means searching for a proof. In traditional (imperative) programming languages, the program is a procedural specification of how a problem needs to be solved. In contrast, a logic program concentrates on a declarative specification of what the problem is. Readers familiar with imperative programming will find that Logic Programming requires quite a different way of thinking. Indeed, their knowledge of the imperative paradigm will be partly incompatible with the logic paradigm.
Logical Intelligent Reasoning by Example
