Foundations of a functional approach to knowledge representation
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: Foundations of a functional approach to knowledge representation
zbMATH Open document ID: 0548.68090
DOI: 10.1016/0004-3702(84)90009-2
author: Hector J. Levesque
published in: Artificial Intelligence
publication date: 1984-01-01T00:00:00Z
review text: We present a new approach to knowledge representation where knowledge bases are characterized not in terms of the structures they use to represent knowledge, but functionally, in terms of what they can be asked or told about some domain. Starting with a representation system that can be asked questions and told facts in a full first-order logical language, we then define ask- and tell-operations over an extended language that can refer not only to the domain but to what the knowledge base knows about that domain. The major technical result is that the resulting knowledge, which now includes auto-epistemic aspects, can still be represented symbolically in first-order terms. We also consider extensions to the framework such as defaults and definitional facilities. The overall result is a formal foundation for knowledge representation which, in accordance with current principles of software design, cleanly separates functionality from implementation structure.
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 68T99
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 68P20
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 68Q65
zbMATH DE Number: 3874659
zbMATH Keywords: knowledge representation
zbMATH Keywords: knowledge bases
zbMATH Keywords: functionality
MaRDI profile type: Publication
full work available at URL: 0004-3702(84)90009-2
OpenAlex ID: W2021693981
cites work: Q4199578
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description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3874659