FRAME-BASED REPRESENTATION OF PHILOSOPHICAL SYSTEMS USING A KNOWLEDGEENGINEERING TOOL

This article addresses the methodological problem of the non-linear re presentation of philosophical systems in a computerized knowledge base . It is a problem of knowledge representation as defined in the field of artificial intelligence. Instead of a purely theoretical discussion of the issue, we present selected results of a practical experiment w hich has in itself some theoretical significance. We show how one can represent different philosophies using CODE, a knowledge engineering s ystem developed by artificial intelligence researchers. The hypothesis is that such a computer based representation of philosophical systems can give insight into their conceptual structure. We argue that compu ter aided text analysis can apply knowledge representation tools and t echniques developed in artificial intelligence and we estimate how phi losophers as well as knowledge engineers could gain from this cross-fe rtilization. This paper should be considered as an experiment report o n the use of knowledge representation techniques in computer aided tex t analysis. It is part of a much broader project on the representation of conceptual structures in an expert system. However, we intentional ly avoided technical issues related to either Computer Science or Hist ory of philosophy to focus on the benefit to enhance traditional human istic studies with tools and methods developed in AI on the one hand a nd the need to develop more appropriate tools on the other.