Contexts as communicating theories

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Dichev, Christo

Affiliations: Institute of Information Technologies – BAS, Block 29A, Acad. G. Bonchev St, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria E‐mail: cdichev@iinf.acad.bg

Abstract: In this paper we address the issue related to modeling some aspects of contextual reasoning. A particular class of multicontext systems is proposed with a single bridge rule linking any two communicating contexts. The proposed approach of contextual reasoning is illustrated by sketching how two first order logics can be accommodated to the contextual framework. Some concepts such as kernel and imported part of contexts are defined, reflecting the distinction between the “self‐generated” and the communicated facts and providing a ground for defining a particular subclass of importing contexts. In order to support a larger “repertoire” of contexts a set of operators for combining contexts into compound structures is introduced, thus defining an algebra of contexts. The notion of compound context reflects the intuition that depending on the problem, interaction between contexts involves variety of dynamic context formations.

Journal: AI Communications, vol. 10, no. 3-4, pp. 185-200, 1997