COMMENT ⊗   VALID 00003 PAGES
C REC  PAGE   DESCRIPTION
C00001 00001
C00002 00002	%contex.abs[s90,jmc]	Abstract on contexts for Italian meeting
C00004 00003	\smallskip\centerline{Copyright \copyright\ 1990\ by John McCarthy}
C00005 ENDMK
C⊗;
%contex.abs[s90,jmc]	Abstract on contexts for Italian meeting
\input memo.tex[let,jmc]
\title{Contexts as Objects}

\noindent Abstract: It is a truism that the meaning of terms and
the truth of sentences depends on context.  Making machines
behave intelligently seems to require formally representing contexts
as objects.  The formalisms discussed in this paper have the following
goals.

1. Represent contexts as a logical sort.

2. Use formulas $true(proposition,context)$ and $denotation(term, context)$
to describe facts about contexts.

3. Discuss relations among contexts, especially one context being a
specialization of another and one context admitting abbreviations of
terms meaningful in the other.

4. Relate contexts to theories of what agents know and believe.

5. Show how axiomatizations of phenomena can be defined in simple
contexts and lifted to more general contexts.
\smallskip\centerline{Copyright \copyright\ 1990\ by John McCarthy}
\smallskip\noindent{\fiverm This draft of CONTEX.ABS[S90,JMC]\ TEXed on \jmcdate\ at \theTime}
%File originated on 05-Apr-90
\vfill\eject\end