Epistemological science of common sense

A review of the book Formalizing Common Sense: Papers by John McCarthy by Vladimir Lifschitz, ed., is presented. This collection of seventeen papers contains McCarthy's most influential papers in artificial intelligence over a long period of time. Providing a uniform and global perspective of this work may at first seem daunting. However, a careful reading will reveal the many connections between the different papers and the fact that all of them are contribution towards the same research project, i.e. the development of an 'advice taker'. This review attempts to describe the advice taker project as it emerges from the papers of the collection: its evolution over time, the achievements made, what remains to be done, its strengths and its limitations.