fact

<artificial intelligence, PI> The kind of clause used in logic programming which has no subgoals and so is always true (always succeeds). E.g.

	wet(water).
	male(denis).

This is in contrast to a rule which only succeeds if all its subgoals do. Rules usually contain logic variables, facts rarely do, except for oddities like "equal(X,X).".

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<2001-03-16>

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Nearby terms: extension - intension « externalism « extrinsic « fact » facticity » factor » fact - value