Conceptual Structures Frequently Asked Questions

(originated from ICCS 2007 and Gerard Ellis)

Here we answer some of the frequently asked questions about conceptual structures.

• What are Conceptual Structures?
• Hasn't Artificial Intelligence already been around for a long time?
• CS is based on graph theory, so is it all just mathematics?
• How should I pronounce "Peirce"?
• What are useful books/papers to read about conceptual structures?
• What journals have conceptual structures papers appeared in?
  
  
  
• What are Conceptual Structures?
  Conceptual Structures, CS, are a set of techniques for representing knowledge in a computer. They can be used to capture knowledge as humans understand it - as information about humans playing roles in events; as knowledge about a process or method; as a means of capturing the implicit consequences of an action or event; or as reasoning about objects in the real world. Conceptual Graphs, CG, (as an example of Conceptual Structures) are based on a field of mathematics called graph theory, so they can be proven to derive correct conclusions from given premises whilst being easily converted to software. Conceptual Graphs were introduced in John Sowa's book ``Conceptual Structures: Information Processing in Mind and Machine'', and have been applied to several domains including natural language processing, information systems modelling, program specification, information retrieval, machine learning and case based reasoning.
  
  
• Hasn't Artificial Intelligence already been around for a long time?
  Yes, but one of the major problems for AI has been connecting the understanding of the computer to what's happening in the real world. Also, capturing the sense of human knowledge inside a computer's data structures has been a difficult problem. CSs help to overcome these problems by capturing the true semantics of the data by expressing all information in terms of basic concepts. These concepts can be aggregated to form more complex concepts and knowledge. Then, CSs express the relationship among all these concepts to capture the essence of the knowledge. These relationships can include simple ideas like "above" or "sister-of" or very complex relationships like "causes to fail" or "depends on" or "this process must precede that process". CSs therefore add value to data.
  
  
• CS is based on graph theory, so is it all just mathematics?
  Yes and no. It is based on graph theory, so we can prove that the software derived from our CSs will work and produce the correct answer. Besides, all software is just a form of executable mathematics anyway. The point is that CSs are a field where mathematics and software join with human knowledge to produce a new kind of reasoning system. Using CSs, we can capture all of the ideas, events, objects and actions in a domain (like steel manufacturing or building a house) and then employ that knowledge in a way similar to what humans do.
  
  
• How should I pronounce "Peirce"? Quote from John Sowa's message of 15 March'95: Re pronunciation of "Peirce": C. S. Peirce is descended from a man named John Pers, who came to America from England. I don't know how the spelling changed, but the pronunciation hasn't. Therefore, Peirce is still pronounced Pers, which rhymes with the English word "purse".
  
  
• What are useful books/papers to read about conceptual structures?
  • John F. Sowa (1984) "Conceptual Structures: Information Processing in Mind and Machine", Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA.
  • Heather D. Pfeiffer and Timothy E. Nagle (Eds.) (1993) "Conceptual Structures: Theory and Implementation", Springer-Verlag, Number 754, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Workshop on Conceptual Graphs, Las Cruces, New Mexico, July 8-10, 1992.
  • Guy W. Mineau and Bernard Moulin and John F. Sowa (Eds.) (1993) "Conceptual Graphs for Knowledge Representation", Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Number 699, Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Conceptual Structures, Quebec City, Canada, August 4-7.
  • William M. Tepfenhart and Judith P. Dick and John F. Sowa (Eds.) (1994) "Conceptual Structures: Current Practices", Second International Conference on Conceptual Structures, ICCS'94, College Park, Maryland, USA, August, Lecture Notes in Artifical Intelligence, Number 835, Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
  • Gerard Ellis and Robert A. Levinson and William Rich and John F. Sowa (Eds.) (1995) "Conceptual Graphs: Structure-based Knowledge Representation", Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Conceptual Structures ICCS'95, August 14-18, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, Springer-Verlag, Number 954, Berlin.
  • Tim Nagle and Jan Nagle and Laurie Gerholz and Peter Eklund (Eds.) (1992) "Conceptual Structures: Current Research and Practice", Ellis Horwood.
  • John F. Sowa (1991) "Toward the Expressive Power of Natural Language," J.F. Sowa (Ed.), Principles of Semantic Networks: Explorations in the Representation of Knowledge, Morgan Kaufmann, San Mateo, CA, p. 157-189.
  • John F. Sowa (1993) "Relating Diagrams to Logic", Guy W. Mineau and Bernard Moulin and John F. Sowa (Eds.), Conceptual Graphs for Knowledge Representation, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Number 699, Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Conceptual Structures, Quebec City, Canada, August 4-7.
  • John F. Sowa (1992) "Conceptual Graphs Summary", T. E. Nagle and J. A. Nagle and L. L. Gerholz and P. W. Eklund (Eds.), Conceptual Structures: Current Research and Practice, Ellis Horwood, p. 3-51.
  • John F. Sowa (1993) "Logical Foundations for Representing Object-Oriented Systems", Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, volume 5.
  • Kenneth Laine Ketner (1990) "Elements of Logic: An Introduction to Peirce's Existential Graphs," Texas Tech University Press, Lubbock, Texas.
  • Don D. Roberts (1973) "The Existential Graphs of Charles S. Peirce", Mouton, The Hague, 1973.
  • Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce Charles (1931-58) Hartshorne and Paul Weiss (Eds.) Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
  • A conceptual structures bibliography.
    
    
• What journals have conceptual structures papers appeared in?
  • special editions of journals
    • _Journal of Theoretical and Experimental AI (JETAI)_, vol. 4, no. 2, 1992, edited by Eileen C. Way.
    • _Knowledge-Based Systems_, vol. 5, no. 3, 1992, ed. by John F. Sowa.
    • _Revue d'Intelligence Artificielle_
    The papers in these issues were based on material that had been presented at the various CG workshops, but all of them were specially written for those issues and reviewed separately for them.
  • Computers and Mathematics with Applications Journal also had a special edition on Semantic Networks edited by Fritz Lehmann which could possibly also be classed in this group.
  • other journals where papers have appeared
    • Data and Knowledge Engineering
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • IBM Journal of Research and Development
    • Computers and Mathematics with Applications
    • Journal of the Assoc. for Literary and Linguistic Computing
    • Applied Artificial Intelligence
    • International Journal of Man-Machine Studies
    • International Journal of Expert Systems
    • Information and Software Technology
    • Methodologies for Intelligent Systems
    • Computational Linguistics
    • IEEE Expert
    • IEICE Transactions on Information and Systems
    • Methods of Information in Medicine