ONT Re: Inquiry Driven Systems
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| Document History
|
| Subject: Inquiry Driven Systems
| Contact: Jon Awbrey <jawbrey@oakland.edu>
| Version: Draft 8.4
| Created: 23 Jun 1996
| Revised: 04 Jun 2001
| Advisor: M.A. Zohdy
| Faculty: Lipman, Mili, Windeknecht
| Setting: Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan
| Excerpt: Section 1.1.1 Problem,
| Section 1.1.2 Method.
Inquiry Driven Systems: An Inquiry Into Inquiry
1. Research Proposal
1.1 Outline of the Project: Inquiry Driven Systems
1.1.1 Problem
This research is oriented toward a single problem: What is the nature of inquiry?
I intend to address crucial questions about the operation, the organization, and
the computational facilitation of inquiry, taking inquiry to encompass the general
trend of all forms of reasoning that lead to the features of scientific investigation
as their ultimate development.
1.1.2 Method
How will I approach this problem about the nature of inquiry?
The simplest answer is this:
I will apply the method of inquiry to the problem of inquiry's nature.
This is the most concise and comprehensive answer I know, but it is likely to sound
facetious at this point. On the other hand, if I did not actually use the method of
inquiry that I describe as inquiry, how could the results possibly be taken seriously?
Correspondingly, the questions of methodological self-application and self-referential
consistency will be found at the center of this research.
In truth, it is fully possible that every means at inquiry's disposal will ultimately find
application in resolving the problem of inquiry's nature. Other than a restraint to valid
methods of inquiry -- what those are is part of the question -- there is no reason to expect
a prior limitation on the range of methods that might be required.
This only leads up to the question of priorities:
Which methods do I think it wise to apply first?
In this project I will give preference to two kinds of technique,
one analytic and one synthetic. The prevailing method of research
I will exercise throughout this work involves representing problematic
phenomena in a variety of formal systems and then implementing these
representations in a computational medium as a way of clarifying the
more complex descriptions that evolve.
Aside from its theoretical core, this research is partly empirical and partly heuristic.
Therefore, I expect that the various components of methodology will need to be applied in an
iterative or even opportunistic fashion, working on any edge of research that appears to be
ready at a given time. If forced to anticipate the likely developments, I would sketch the
possibilities roughly as follows.
The methodology that underlies this approach has two components:
The analytic component involves describing the performance and competence
of intelligent agents in the medium of various formal systems.
The synthetic component involves implementing these formal systems and
the descriptions they express in the form of computational interpreters
or language processors.
If everything goes according to the pattern I have observed in previous work, the principal
facets of analytic and synthetic procedure will each be prefaced by its own distinctive phase
of preparatory activity, where the basic materials needed for further investigation are brought
together for comparative study. Taking these initial stages into consideration, I can describe
the main modalities of this research in greater detail.
To Be Continued ...
Jon Awbrey
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