Time, Nonmonotonicity, Qualified Syllogisms, and the Frame Problem
Daniel G. Schwartz · Journal of Intelligent Systems · 1998
This paper reviews the well-known 'frame problem' and its relation to the subject of nonmonotonic reasoning.The paper considers how both topics concern the central problem of reasoning with incomplete information and argues that these subjects would benefit from a formalism that explicitly portrays reasoning as an activity that takes place in time.In process, the paper distinguishes between the problems associated with reasoning about static domains versus dynamically changing ones and explains why the frame problem itself only arises in the latter.Then this paper mak es a case for the use of fuzzy quantifiers and related notions in nonmonotonic reasoning about a particular variety of static domain, namely, multiple-inheritance hierarchies, and outlines a formalism in which the associated knowledge representation and inference methods can be expressed.Last, the paper considers how this same kind of formalism might be applied to the more difficult case of dynamic domains.This section includes a further elucidation of the frame problem and its salient subproblems.