[net.ai] Seminar - Common Sense Thinking

chertok%ucbkim%Berkeley@sri-unix.UUCP (09/20/84)

From:  chertok%ucbkim@Berkeley (Paula Chertok)

             BERKELEY COGNITIVE SCIENCE PROGRAM
                         Fall 1984
           Cognitive Science Seminar -- IDS 237A

   TIME:                Tuesday, September 25, 11 - 12:30
   PLACE:               240 Bechtel Engineering Center
   DISCUSSION:          12:30 - 2 in 200 Building T-4

   SPEAKER:        John McCarthy, Computer Science  Department,
                   Stanford University

   TITLE:          What is common sense thinking?

   ABSTRACT:       Common sense  thinking  includes  a  certain
                   collection  of knowledge and certain reason-
                   ing  ability.   Expert  knowledge  including
                   scientific knowledge fits into the framework
                   provided  by  common  sense.   Common  sense
                   knowledge  includes  facts  about the conse-
                   quences  of  actions  in  the  physical  and
                   psychological  worlds,  facts about the pro-
                   perties of space, time, causality and physi-
                   cal  and  social objects.  Common sense rea-
                   soning includes both logical  deductive  and
                   various  kinds  of  non-monotonic reasoning.
                   Much common sense knowledge is  not  readily
                   expressible  in  words, and much that can be
                   usually isn't.

                   The lecture will attempt  to  survey  common
                   sense  knowledge and common sense reasoning.
                   It will be oriented  toward  expressing  the
                   knowledge in languages of mathematical logic
                   and expressing the  reasoning  as  deduction
                   plus formal non-monotonic reasoning.