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On the Conceptual Status of Belief Functions with Respect to Coherent Lower Probabilities

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Symbolic and Quantitative Approaches to Reasoning with Uncertainty (ECSQARU 2001)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 2143))

Abstract

The interpretations of belief functins and their relationships with other uncertainty theories have been widely debated in the literature. Focusing on the interpretation of belief functions based on non-negative masses, in this paper we provide a contribution to this topic by addressing two questions concerning the relationships between belief functions and coherent lower probabilities. The answers we provide to both questions tend to exclude the existence of intuitively appreciable relationships between the two theories, under the above mentioned interpretation. While this may be regarded as a confirmation of the conceptual autonomy of belief functions, we also propose future research about an alternative characterization, based on the notion of independence.

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© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Baroni, P., Vicig, P. (2001). On the Conceptual Status of Belief Functions with Respect to Coherent Lower Probabilities. In: Benferhat, S., Besnard, P. (eds) Symbolic and Quantitative Approaches to Reasoning with Uncertainty. ECSQARU 2001. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 2143. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44652-4_29

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44652-4_29

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-42464-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-44652-1

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