Abstract
Redux is a system for making generalizations from cases - case histories, case studies, legal cases, medical cases, etc. It is a system for reduction, i.e., it searches for repeated patterns, particularly patterns involving the circumstances of types by using a logic different from set logic. The predicates that Redux examines have active verbs and types that are common nouns and are the arguments of active verbs. Redux uses a taxonomy of verbs in which each element of a taxon is a specification of a general verb. It also uses a taxonomy in which types (common nouns) are grouped according to their definitional roles with general verbs. Redux also uses a verb hierarchy in which verb taxa are grouped into levels which are distinguished by restrictions of causation. Effective contexts, formed from cases from their topic predicates, are composed of predicates which are linked through circumstances. In these contexts, predicates at higher levels subsume those at lower levels. Using general predicates, the verb hierarchy, and effective contexts, Redux answers the questions “What happened?” and “How did it happen?” for a set of cases with a single topic.
Redux is presented as a metalanguage for the analysis of the behavior of types. Questions of feasibility with regard to its implementation as a system are broached, the grammar and logic which Redux uses are described, and a demonstration of its use is presented.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Brachman, Ronald J., Richard E. Fikes and Hector J. Levesque. “Krypton: A Functional Approach to Knowledge Representation”. In Readings in Knowledge Representation. Ed. Ronald J. Brachman and Harold J. Levesque. Los Altos, CA: Morgan Kaufmann, 1985.
Finch, Henry Le Roy. Wittgenstein - The Early Philosophy. New York: Humanities Press, 1971.
Malinowski, Bronislaw. Coral Gardens and their Magic. Volume Il: The Language of Magic and Gardening. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1965.
Van Dijk, Teun A. Text and Context. London: Longman, 1977.
Wilkins, Wendy, ed. Syntax and Semantics. Volume 21: Thematic Relations. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 1988.
Winograd, Terry and Fernando Flores. Understanding Computers and Cognition. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1987.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Tractatus Logico-philosophicus. Trans. D.F. Pears and B.F. McGuinness. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1961.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Philosophical Grammar. Ed. Rush Rhees. Trans. Anthony Kenny. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1974.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Editor's note. Due to the untimely death of the author, it was not possible to complete the normal revision procedures on this manuscript. The editor hopes, nevertheless, that the author's research is properly represented. At the time of his death in February 1995, Bob Abramson was an instructor and computer consultant at American Business Institute. Bob earned a B.A. from Comell University and an M.A. from University of Pennsylvania. He was the publisher of The New Press and organized poetry readings throughout New York City.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Abramson, R. REDUX: A system for the reduction of cases. Comput Hum 30, 29–75 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00054026
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00054026