Interactions between philosophy and AI: The role of intuition and non-logical reasoning in intelligence

This paper echoes, from a philosophical standpoint, the claim of McCarthy and Hayes that Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence have important relations. Philosophical problems about the use of "intuition" in reasoning are related, via a concept of analogical representation, to problems in the simulation of perception, problem-solving and the generation of useful sets of possibilities in considering how to act. The requirements for intelligent decision-making proposed by McCarthy and Hayes are criticised as too narrow, and more general requirements are suggested instead. Introduction The aim of this paper is to illustrate the way in which interaction between Philosophy and A.I. may be useful for both disciplines. It starts with a discussion of some philosophical issues which interested me long before I knew anything about A.I., and which I believe are considerably enriched and clarified by relating them to problems in A.I., which, they, in turn, help to clarify. This discussion is followed by some general speculations about the conceptual and perceptual equipment required by an animal or machine able to cope with our spatiotemporal environment. Finally, there are further vague, general and programmatic remarks about the relations between Philosophy and A.I. The paper was inspired mainly by discussions with Max Clowes, but also to some extent by the attempts made by McCarthy and Hayes (12), and Hayes (8) to relate philosophical issues to problems in the design of intelligent robots.