Axiomatic Principles and Limits

Abstract

One could expect a chapter with this title to be right at the beginning of the study pursued in this book. We found it easier, however, to postpone the discussion of axiomatic principles until some of the most important syntactical and semantics concepts have been introduced.

The justification of the dependability of a real system is based, like other disciplines, on general accepted principles and assumptions that are most of the time considered as self-evident and kept implicit. But dependability is at stake; therefore, it is important that these principles and assumptions get questioned and clarified so as to ensure the robustness of the approach and delineate the limits of its applicability. This chapter examines some of the most basic principles and limits of the method presented here, namely those of claim justifiability, evidence plausibility, consensus and epistemic uncertainty.