No label defined (Q4532201)

In this chapter of the Blackwell Guide to Philosophical Logic, the author gives a brief introduction to nonmonotonic logic. The text begins by recalling the two problems arising in artificial intelligence that gave rise to the development of nonmonotonic logic over the last two decades, namely the `frame problem' and the `qualification problem'. It continues by outlining two particular kinds of nonmonotonic system that were devised in the 1980s in response to those problems, namely the default logic of Reiter (1980) and the circumscriptive logic of McCarthy (1980, 1986). Reviewer's comment. Both the motivation and the two systems in response are covered clearly and accurately in the short space available, and can be recommended warmly to students beginning the subject. However it would also be advisable for them to supplement the text with further basic material that is not covered in the chapter, notably on preferential systems (naturally generalizing circumscription) and default-assumption systems, as well as the syntactic analysis of the principles of inference that are validated by the various kinds of construction. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0983.03001].