. Existing formalisations of (transfinite) inductive definitions in constructive mathematics are reviewed and strong correspondences with LP under least model and perfect model semantics become apparent. I point to fundamental restrictions of these existing formalisations and argue that the well-founded semantics (wfs) overcomes these problems and hence, provides a superior formalisation of the principle of inductive definition. The contribution of this study for LP is that it (re- )introduces the knowledge theoretic interpretation of LP as a logic for representing definitional knowledge. I point to fundamental differences between this knowledge theoretic interpretation of LP and the more commonly known interpretations of LP as default theories or auto-epistemic theories. The relevance is that differences in knowledge theoretic interpretation have strong impact on knowledge representation methodology and on extensions of the LP formalism, for example for representing uncertainty. Keywo...

In this paper, we present a brief overview of most recent and ongoing research in logic programming at the K.U.Leuven Department of Computer Science. We specifically include some indications of its practical, current and/or prospective industrial relevance. For the benefit of the interested reader, we also provide a rich selection of references to papers published by the K.U.Leuven group in the scientific literature. 1 Introduction The research group on Logic Programming and Artificial Intelligence at the Department of Computer Science of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium can boast a long standing tradition of excellence in research on, development of and investigations with logic programming. Following an initial effort by Maurice Bruynooghe in the seventies and early eighties, the group has strongly expanded throughout the later eighties and early nineties. It currently ranks among Europe's leading groups in logic programming, frequently hosting foreign visiting scientis...