symbolic inference
symbolic inference
Inference is a basic part of human reasoning. For examplegiven that all men are mortal and that Socrates is a man, itis a trivial step to infer that Socrates is mortal. We mightexpress these symbolically:
man(X) => mortal(X).man(socrates).
("if X is a man then X is mortal" and "Socrates is a man").Here, "man", "mortal" and "socrates" are just arbitrarysymbols which the computer manipulates without reference to orknowledge of their external meaning. A forward chainingsystem (a production system) could use these to infer thenew fact
mortal(socrates).
simply by matching the left-hand-side of the implicationagainst the fact and substituting socrates for the variable X.