Production and Causal Logics for Nonmonotonic Reasoning

We introduce logical formalisms of production and causal inference relations based on input/output logics of [Makinson and van der Torre, 2000]. These inference relations are assigned, however, both standard monotonic semantics, and natural nonmonotonic semantics based on the principle of explanatory closure. The resulting nonmonotonic formalisms will be shown to provide a logical representation of abductive reasoning, and a complete characterization of causal nonmonotonic reasoning from [McCain and Turner, 1997]. The results of the study suggest production and causal inference as a new general framework for nonmonotonic reasoning.