Abstract
We introduce preliminary research on the problem of applying analogical reasoning to proof discovery. In our approach, the proof of one theorem is used to guide the proof of a similar theorem by suggesting analogous steps. When a step suggested by a guiding proof cannot be applied, actions are taken to bring the proofs back into correspondence, often by adding intermediate steps. Taking this approach, we have implemented a natural deduction prover which exploits analogical reasoning and has yielded some promising results in the domain of Real Analysis. We present some of these results, which include a proof of the convergence of the product of convergent sequences, using an analogous proof for the sum of convergent sequences. We also include the timing results of one experiment in which our prover's performance was compared with and without the use of analogy.
This work was supported in part by NSF grant CCR-8613 706.
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© 1988 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Brock, B., Cooper, S., Pierce, W. (1988). Analogical reasoning and proof discovery. In: Lusk, E., Overbeek, R. (eds) 9th International Conference on Automated Deduction. CADE 1988. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 310. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0012849
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0012849
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