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A common-sense theory of time

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Foundations of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 810))

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Abstract

Treating instants of time as primitive not only is conceptually implausible but also has encountered grave practical difficulties. A satisfactory theory of time seems to be one which is based on the common-sense idea that events or periods are the primitive enties of time while instants are constructed from them. In this paper we present one such common-sense theory of time. We start from a structure of events, construct instants out of the events, and then show that these instants have the properties we normally expect of them. Views discussed here include the view of Allen and Hayes, and that of Russell.

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Gerhard Lakemeyer Bernhard Nebel

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© 1994 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Lin, Y.Q. (1994). A common-sense theory of time. In: Lakemeyer, G., Nebel, B. (eds) Foundations of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 810. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-58107-3_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-58107-3_13

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