Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 July 2009
When a mechanic troubleshoots a car, a physician narrows down a diagnosis, a designer selects from among options, or a corporation conducts a post-mortem of a venture gone wrong, the nature knowledge used is more likely than not, the same. That knowledge is “function”, though in the above scenarios it may be variously referred to as “responsibility”, “causal factor” or “missing element”. Reasoning about function is an integral part of human reasoning. It is currently attracting a lot of attention in artificial intelligence.