Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!ria!cs!wsaba
From: wsaba@cscs.uwindsor.ca (Walid Saba)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: AGAINST FORMALISM?
Keywords: REASONING (is the keyword)!
Message-ID: <549@schoenfinkel.cscs.uwindsor.ca>
Date: 14 Jun 91 04:55:30 GMT
Organization: School of Computer Science, Univ. of Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Lines: 45

It seems to me that the psychology - philosophy debate in AI is
not leading anywhere. The reason is that it is not discussing the
real issue. The question should be "what sort of reasoning do
we need to simulate, in order to simulate intelligence?". The
debate should not be about the question of whether we should
use logical reasoning or not? OF COURSE WE SHOULD! But what
sort of reasoning? is the right question.

For example, when being told  

         Sam is pregnant.

an "intelligent" system should infer some other facts.
For example, 

            =g=> Sam is a female
            =g=> Sam is alive
            =g=> Sam's age is within a certain range
                 (depending on the context, indicating
                  whether Sam is human, or perhaps a cat).
            ...etc.

Is this "logical" reasoning? Of course.
Whatever `logic' is used (default, common sense, etc.), we 
are using some logic. As a matter of fact, every formalism
has its own logic.

The point here is that the argument against some (constrained)
logics should not be extrapolated to the point were we ignore
the simple fact that ANY FORMALISM HAS ITS LOGIC. How suitable
this logic is beside the point.

Did we ever stop to think how we (humans) compute the square
root of a number. We know that the routines we built compute
the square root in nano-seconds, and everything is fine...
Is it? Well, these are numerical computations and in that
sphere things are manageable. But couldn't the same be true of
symbolic computations??

Walid Saba
School of Computer Science
University of Windsor
Windsor, Ontario, Canada N9B 3P4
(519) 253-4232 ext. 3003/3005
email: wsaba@cs.uwindsor.ca