Abstract
Trustworthy AI requires reasoning systems that are both powerful and transparent. Automated Reasoning (AR) is central to formal reasoning, yet classical binary resolution is limited: each step handles only two clauses and removes at most two literals. To move beyond this bottleneck, the concepts of standard contradiction and contradiction-separation-based deduction were introduced in 2018. This paper extends that framework by systematically constructing and applying standard contradictions for multi-clause deduction and automated theorem generation. We focus on two key forms—the maximum triangular and triangular-type standard contradictions—and present methods for building them. Using these structures, we develop a procedure to test the satisfiability of clause sets and derive formulas to count the sub-contradictions they contain. These results establish a foundation for dynamic multi-clause automated deduction and theorem generation, expanding the expressive and deductive reach of reasoning systems beyond the classical binary paradigm.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 114985 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-17 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| Journal | Knowledge-Based Systems |
| Volume | 334 |
| Early online date | 7 Dec 2025 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published (in print/issue) - 15 Feb 2026 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2025 Elsevier B.V.
Funding
The present work is partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 62366017, 61673320, 61976130).
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| National Natural Science Foundation of China | 61976130, 62366017, 61673320 |
UN SDGs
This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
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SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth
Keywords
- Contradiction
- Standard contradiction
- Triangular standard contradiction
- Automated reasoning
- Automated theorem generation
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