Description Logics with Circumscription.

We show that circumscription can be used to extend description logics (DLs) with nonmonotonic features in a straightforward and transparent way. In particular, we consider extensions with circumscription of the expressive DLs ALCIO and ALCQO and prove that reasoning in these logics is decidable under a simple restriction: only concept names can be circumscribed, and role names vary freely during circumscription. We pinpoint the exact computational complexity of reasoning as complete for NP NEXP and NEXP NP , depending on whether or not the number of minimized and fixed predicates is assumed to be bounded by a constant. We also show that we cannot allow role names to be fixed during minimization rather than having them vary: this modification renders reasoning undecidable already in the basic DL ALC . Finally, we argue that non-monotonic DLs based on circumscription are an appropriate tool for modelling defeasible inheritance. In particular, we can avoid the restriction of non-monotonic reasoning to domain elements that are named by an individual constant, as adopted by other non-monotonic DLs.