Reasoning about theory adequacy: a new solution to the qualification problem

One of the main problems in commonsense reasoning is the qualification problem, ie. the fact that the number of qualifications for most general commonsense statements is virtually infinite. In this paper we argue that a solution to this problem should be based on a (meta) conjecture that the theory used to reason about the world contains all the necessary information. We also show that this theory adequacy conjecture can be made before the application of any of the formalisms proposed in the past, eg. circumscription.Finally, we present a formalization of the solution proposed using contexts and circumscription and use it to solve McCarthy's Glasgow-London-Moscow example. © 1995 IOS Press. All rights reserved.