Logic,ontologies and mental states – report on the ECAI‐98 conference

Abstract

This short report of the ECAI‐98 conference held in Brighton, England, in August 1998 addresses – from the cognitive scientist’s point of view – some conceptual issues concerning the contents (subject matter) of the presented papers, as well as some conceptual ambiguities of overall arrangements of the conference. Due to the fact that cognitive scientists work especially on human behaviour – and are interested both in rational and fallible aspects of human nature – the conference revealed some fundamental inaccuracies of terminology frequently used in artificial intelligence research and engineering societies. This report questions these as well as the connection between intelligent behaviour and the formal systems presented at the conference.