On the autoepistemic reconstruction of logic programming (Q685123)

We propose a new semantics of logic programs that can reflect some of the syntactical behaviours of the programs. The central notion of the semantics is the concept of a neutral clause \(p\leftarrow A\) which does not affect the behaviour of \(p\) in a program. The logic that underlies the semantics is based on an intensional extension of Levesque's autoepistemic predicate logic. It differs from existing autoepistemic logics in that it is quantificational and constructive. We will also compare and contrast our semantics with some well-known semantics. We will show how to capture the undefined value of a logic program without resorting to a three-valued nonmonotonic formalism. This is achieved by translating an incoherent AE logic program to a program with multiple AE extensions whose intersection can then be used to characterize the undefined value of a logic program.