Entailments and the Maximal Mesh

Abstract

In practice, how can we build a knowledge structure for a specific body of information? The first step is to select the items forming a domain Q. For real-life applications, we will typically assume this domain to be finite. The second step is then to construct a list of all the subsets of Q that are feasible knowledge states, in the sense that anyone of them could conceivably occur in the population of reference. To secure such a list, we could in principle rely on one or more experts in the particular body of information. However, if no assumption is made on the structure to be uncovered, the only exact method consists in the presentation of all subsets of Q to the expert, so that he can point out the states.