To formulate common sense reasoning, the two most important elements are non-monotonic and uncertain reasoning. Traditional methods of formulating these two types of reasoning have been either from logical approaches or statistical approaches. In this paper, we propose a scheme called the evidential relaxation labeling (EVRL) scheme which can integrate both types of reasoning within one framework. The EVRL scheme is based on the Dempster-Shafer theory. The Dempster-Shafer theory was originally devised for uncertain reasoning, and we had shown its application in another paper[1]. We emphasize, therefore, how the EVRL scheme can be used to perform non-monotonic reasoning. In particular, we show howReiter's interacting default problems can be reformulated within the EVRL scheme.

Keywords: common sense reasoning, dempster-shafer theory, uncertain reasoning, relaxation labeling, non-monotonic reasoning

Received July 7, 1992; revised December 15, 1993.
Communicated by Wen-Hsiang Tsai.