On the Dimensions of Context Dependence: Partiality, Approximation, and Perspective

. In this paper we propose to re-read the past work on formalizing context as the search for a logic of the relationships between partial, approximate, and perspectival theories of the world. The idea is the following. We start from a very abstract analysis of a context dependent representation into three basic elements. We briey show that all the mechanisms of contextual reasoning that have been studied in the past fall into three abstract forms: expand/contract, push/pop, and shifting. Moreover we argue that each of the three forms of reasoning actually captures an operation on a dierent dimension of variation of a context dependent representation, partiality, approximation, and perspective. We show how these ideas are formalized in the framework of MultiContext Systems, and briey illustrate some applications.

Patterns in World Dynamics Indicating Agency

In this paper, the question is addressed which patterns in world dynamics are an indication for a conceptualisation of a world’s process as an agent. Six criteria are discussed that provide an indication for the world to show a form agency, and allows for suitable agent-based conceptualisation. The criteria take the form of relationships between the occurrence of certain patterns in the world’s dynamics, and are expressed as second-order properties of world dynamics. They are formalised in a reified temporal predicate (meta-)logical language and their use is illustrated in a case study, supported by automated support in the form of simulation and verification.