{{one source|date=July 2011}} In philosophy and AI (especially, knowledge-based systems), the '''qualification problem''' is concerned with the impossibility of listing ''all'' the preconditions required for a real-world action to have its intended effect.<ref name="reiter">{{cite book | last1=Reiter | first1=Raymond | title=Knowledge in Action: Logical Foundations for Specifying and Implementing Dynamical Systems | publisher= The MIT Press | location=Cambridge, Massachusetts | year=2001 | pages=20–22 | isbn=9780262527002}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | first1=Michael | last1=Thielscher | title=The Qualification Problem: A solution to the problem of anomalous models | journal = Artificial Intelligence | volume= 131 | issue=1–2 | date=September 2001 | pages=1–37 | doi= 10.1016/S0004-3702(01)00131-X| doi-access=free }}</ref> It might be posed as ''how to deal with the things that prevent me from achieving my intended result''. It is strongly connected to, and opposite the ramification side of, the frame problem.<ref name="reiter" /> John McCarthy gives the following motivating example, in which it is impossible to enumerate all the circumstances that may prevent a robot from performing its ordinary function:
{{quote|[T]he successful use of a boat to cross a river requires, if the boat is a rowboat, that the oars and rowlocks be present and unbroken, and that they fit each other. Many other qualifications can be added, making the rules for using a rowboat almost impossible to apply, and yet anyone will still be able to think of additional requirements not yet stated.<ref>{{cite journal | first1=John | last1=McCarthy | title=Circumscription: A form of non-monotonic reasoning | journal = Artificial Intelligence | volume = 13 | issue=1–2 | date= April 1980 | pages=27–39 | doi=10.1016/0004-3702(80)90011-9 | url=http://jmc.stanford.edu/articles/circumscription/circumscription.pdf}}</ref>}}
==See also== *Non-monotonic logic *Circumscription
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * John McCarthy "[http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/circumscription/node1.html Introduction: The Qualification Problem]"
Category:Knowledge representation Category:Logic programming Category:Epistemology
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