Rough mereology: A new paradigm for approximate reasoning

Abstract

We are concerned with formal models of reasoning under uncertainty. Many approaches to this problem are known in the literature: Dempster-Shafer theory, bayesian-based reasoning, belief networks, fuzzy logics, etc. We propose rough mereology as a foundation for approximate reasoning about complex objects. Our notion of a complex object includes approximate proofs understood as schemes constructed to support our assertions about the world on the basis of our incomplete or uncertain knowledge. © 1996 Elsevier Science Inc.