Four valued logic: Supporting complexity in knowledge sharing processes

Authors: Bednar, P., Welch, C. and Katos, V.

Journal: Proceedings of the European Conference on Knowledge Management, ECKM

Pages: 29-35

eISSN: 2048-8971

ISSN: 2048-8963

Abstract:

An essential problem of 'knowledge management' is the impossibility of codifying 'knowledge' whichis embedded in human agents. It can never be straightforward for members of an organization to share whatthey know with one another. Such a process might be facilitated, but would be difficult to 'manage'. Inrecognition of this, organizations have sought ways to support knowledge sharing processes, ranging fromdocument-based repositories to on-going mentor/trainee relationships. From day to day, all individuals willneed to make choices relating to their organizational roles. A need to recognize the element of choice andjudgment available to an individual requires an ability to distinguish and discriminate between differentcategories of argument or assertion. When attempting to deal with problems, people are capable of usingmulti-valued logic in a process of creating assertions. It follows, therefore, that any support mechanism basedonly on bi-valued logic might serve to constrain and inhibit exercise of judgment. Using four-valued logic, it ispossible to codify, not knowledge, but categories of argument/assertion. By this means, improved support maybe provided for a knowledge-sharing environment, i.e. with a purpose to support knowledge managementprocesses. In this paper, the authors draw on previous research in contextual analysis, complex methods ofinquiry and paraconsistent logic in order to develop these ideas. A model of four-valued logic is described andapplied for the purpose of categorising arguments.

Source: Scopus

Preferred by: Vasilis Katos