Automated reasoning
Automated reasoning is an area of computer science and mathematical logic dedicated to understanding different aspects of reasoning.
Description
The study of automated reasoning helps produce computer programs that allow computers to reason completely, or nearly completely, automatically.
Although automated reasoning is considered a sub-field of artificial intelligence, it also has connections with theoretical computer science, and even philosophy.
The most developed subareas of automated reasoning are automated theorem proving (and the less automated but more pragmatic subfield of interactive theorem proving) and automated proof checking (viewed as guaranteed correct reasoning under fixed assumptions).
Extensive work has also been done in reasoning by analogy induction and abduction.
Related topics
Other important topics include reasoning under uncertainty and non-monotonic reasoning. An important part of the uncertainty field is that of argumentation, where further constraints of minimality and consistency are applied on top of the more standard automated deduction. John Pollock's OSKAR system is an example of an automated argumentation system that is more specific than being just an automated theorem prover.
Tools and techniques
Tools and techniques of automated reasoning include:
- Classical logics and calculi
- Fuzzy logic
- Bayesian inference
- Reasoning with maximal entropy
- A large number of less formal ad hoc techniques
See also
- Agent (computing)
- Algorithm
- Artificial intelligence
- Autonomous agent
- Computer science
- Machine reasoning
- Mathematical logic
- Reason
External links
- Automated reasoning @ Wikipedia
