Logic for Problem Solving, Revisited
1st Edition
Published on 18. November 2014
Book
Paperback/Softback
344 pages
978-3-8370-3629-9 (ISBN)
Description
This seminal book of Computer Science is the most cited reference on the subject of programming in logic. Originally published in 1979, this now classic text was the first comprehensive attempt to define the scope of logic for problem solving. In this extended edition, Robert Kowalski revisits his classic text in the light of subsequent developments in a substantial commentary of fifty pages.
This work investigates the application of logic to problem-solving and computer programming. It assumes no previous knowledge of these fields, and may be appropriate therefore as an introduction to logic, the theory of problem-solving, and computer programming. At the focal point is Computational Logic. It centers around the famous slogan: Algorithm = Logic + Control, which was coined by the author and is explained in this book. According to this view, an algorithm consists of a problem description (the logic part) and a strategy to perform useful computations on this description (the control part). This separation of concerns ideally leads to declarative programs that are simple to develop, clear to understand and easy to maintain.
This work investigates the application of logic to problem-solving and computer programming. It assumes no previous knowledge of these fields, and may be appropriate therefore as an introduction to logic, the theory of problem-solving, and computer programming. At the focal point is Computational Logic. It centers around the famous slogan: Algorithm = Logic + Control, which was coined by the author and is explained in this book. According to this view, an algorithm consists of a problem description (the logic part) and a strategy to perform useful computations on this description (the control part). This separation of concerns ideally leads to declarative programs that are simple to develop, clear to understand and easy to maintain.
More details
Persons
Author
Robert Kowalski is a logician and computer scientist.
He studied at the University of Chicago, University of Bridgeport (BA in mathematics), Stanford University (MSc in mathematics), University of Warsaw and the University of Edinburgh (PhD in computer science). He was a research fellow at the University of Edinburgh and has been at Imperial College London since 1975, attaining a chair in Computational Logic in 1982 and becoming Emeritus Professor in 1999. He was inducted as a Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence in 1991, of the European Coordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence in 1999, and of the Association for Computing Machinery in 2001.
He began his research in the field of automated theorem proving, developing both SL-resolution with Donald Kuehner and the connection graph proof procedure. However, he is best known for his contributions to the development of logic programming, starting with the procedural interpretation of Horn clauses.
He also developed the minimal model and the fixpoint semantics of Horn clauses with Maarten van Emden. With Marek Sergot, he developed both the event calculus and the application of logic programming to legal reasoning. With Fariba Sadri, he developed an agent model in which beliefs are represented by logic programs and goals are represented by integrity constraints.
Kowalski was one of the early developers of Abductive Logic Programming, in which logic programs are augmented with integrity constraints and with undefined, abducible predicates. This work led to the demonstration with Phan Minh Dung and Francesca Toni that most logics for default reasoning can be regarded as special cases of assumption-based argumentation.
Editor
Thom Frühwirth is a professor of Computer Science at the University of Ulm, Germany. His research areas are Computational Logic and Constraint Programming. He is the designer of the logical formalism and programming language Constraint Handling Rules.
http://www.constraint-handling-rules.org