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prefac[s88,jmc]		Preface to collected papers

	As is usual when one contemplates reprinting papers published
over a long period, I indulge in wishful thinking about revising them
all.  There are some obvious improvements to be made, but if I really
started rewriting them, there would be a few conceptual problems to
solve, and it would take ten years, even supposing I had the energy.

	The logic-based approach to AI is today being pursued more
vigorously by more people than at any time in the past.  Also objections
to the logic-based approach are being advanced more vigorously than
at any time in the past.  While only a few of the objections
refer directly to the formalisms discussed in these papers,
it seems to me that some of the objections miss some of the points
made in the papers, and I wish the papers had been more emphatic
about them.

	The largest single gap in the collection is the lack of
a comprehensive statement of the goals of the approach beyond
that given in the first paper ``Programs with Common Sense''.