A Logic of Implicit and Explicit Belief

Abstract

As part of an on-going project to understand the found* tions of Knowledge Representation, we are attempting to characterize a kind of belief that forms a more appropriate basis for Knowledge Representation systems than that cap tured by the usual possible-world formalizations begun by Hintikka. In this paper, we point out deficiencies in current semantic treatments of knowledge and belief (including re-cent syntactic approaches) and suggest a new analysis in the form of a logic that avoids these shortcomings and is also more viable computationally. The kind of belief that underlies terms in AI such as ‘Know!-edge Representation ” or “knowledge base ” has never been ade-quately characterized. r As we discuss below, the major existing formal model of belief (originated by Hintikka in [l]) requires the