Multiprocessor Execution of Logic Programs

The book covers topics spanning the period from the early days of logic programming to current times. It discusses applications to computational logic and potential applications to the integration of models of computation, knowledge representation and reasoning, and the Semantic Web. The authors develop well-known and important semantics in logic programming from a unified point of view using both order theory and new, nontraditional methods. They closely examine the interrelationships between various semantics as well as the integration of logic programming and connectionist systems/neural networks.

Since his inaugural lecture at Freiburg in 1929 in which Heidegger delivered his most celebrated salvo against logic, he has frequently been portrayed as an anti-logician, a classic example of the obscurity resultant upon a rejection of the discipline of logic, a champion of the irrational, and a variety of similar things.

Foundation of logic historically dates back to the times of Aristotle, who pioneered the concept of truth/falsehood paradigm in reasoning. Mathematical logic of propositions and predicates, which are based on the classical models of Aristotle, underwent a dramatic evolution during the last 50 years for its increasing applications in automated reasoning on digital computers. The subject of Logic Programming is concerned with automated reasoning with facts and knowledge to answer a user’s query following the syntax and semantics of the logic of propositions/predicates. The credit of automated reasoning by logic programs goes to Professor Robinson for his well-known resolution theorem that provides a general scheme to select two program clauses for deriving an inference.

This book is dedicated to Marek Sergot, Professor in Computational Logic at Imperial College London, on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Professor Sergot’s scientific contributions range over many different fields. He has developed a series of novel ideas and formal methods bridging areas including artificial intelligence, computational logic, philosophical logic, legal theory, artificial intelligence and law, multi-agent systems and bioinformatics. By combining his background in logic and computing with his interest in the law, deontic logic, action, and related areas, and applying to all his capacity to understand the subtleties of social interaction and normative reasoning, Professor Sergot has opened up new directions of research, and has been a reference, an inspiration, and a model for many researchers in the fields to which he has contributed. The Festschrift includes several reminiscences and introductory essays describing Professor Sergot's achievements, followed by a series of articles on logic programming, temporal reasoning and action languages, artificial intelligence and law, deontic logic and norm-governed systems, and logical approaches to policies.

The use of logic in databases started in the late 1960s. In the early 1970s Codd formalized databases in terms of the relational calculus and the relational algebra. A major influence on the use of logic in databases was the development of the field of logic programming. Logic provides a convenient formalism for studying classical database problems and has the important property of being declarative, that is, it allows one to express what she wants rather than how to get it.