A Two-Level System of Knowledge Representation Based on Epistemic Probability
Abstract
A knowledge state is represented by two sets of statements, rather than one. One set of statements represents evidence; it corresponds to recorded data, together with general knowledge that is not open to question in the context at hand. We refer to this as the evidential corpus of knowledge. The other set of statements represents a body of practical certainties, based on the statements constituting the evidential corpus. It consists of statements whose probabilities, relative to the evidential corpus, exceed some explicit level determined by the context. Probabilities are assigned to statements, relative to a body of evidence called evidential corpus. We require statistical knowledge (not just statistical evidence) as a basis for every probability statement. Two facts render this constraint acceptable: It doesn't take much statistical data to yield an approximate statistical hypothesis. And if we adopt the principle that statements known to have the same truth value are to be assigned the same probability, we may link many statements to the same statistical foundation.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1989
- Accession Number
- ADA255280
Entities
People
- Henry E. Kyburg Jr.
Organizations
- University of Rochester