Closed-world databases and circumscription (Q1079022)

There is a similarity between the closed-world assumption and circumscribing predicate symbols in the sense of predicate ''minimization''. The purpose of the paper is to investigate under what conditions the closed-world assumption and the result of circumscribing all predicates are equivalent. Closed-world assumption is shown to be equivalent to a special case of circumscription. Reasons are given why circumscription is a substantially more powerful form of non-monotonic reasoning.