Nonmonotonic Reasoning in Design

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
This paper contends that structural design is a dynamic process whose best example can be found in the active, conjectural, or even vacillating reasoning involved. Nonmonotonic reasoning permeates the design process and underpins the evolution of design states, in that new beliefs may change existing beliefs and refute inferences drawn. Neglect of nonmonotonicity has contributed to the failure of classical attempts at design modeling. To reinforce these arguments, instances of nonmonotonic reasoning in conceptual design are identified; the modus operandi of such inferencing in a dynamic design process is illustrated. The support of these reasoning processes is rated as a crucial element in a model for design. An approach based on artificial‐intelligence techniques to accommodate the dynamic inferencing activities in structural design is described.

This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit: