The Completeness of Propositional Resolution: A Simple and Constructive Proof

Abstract

It is well known that the resolution method (for propositional logic) is complete. However, completeness proofs found in the literature use an argument by contradiction showing that if a set of clauses is unsatisfiable, then it must have a resolution refutation. As a consequence, none of these proofs actually gives an algorithm for producing a resolution refutation from an unsatisfiable set of clauses. In this note, we give a simple and constructive proof of the completeness of propositional resolution which consists of an algorithm together with a proof of its correctness.

Keywords

• computer science - logic in computer science
• computer science - artificial intelligence
• f.4.1
• i.2