Epistemic State
Class
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#EpistemicState
Class Hierarchy
- Thing
- ↳ entity (bfo)
- ↳ continuant (bfo)
- ↳ specifically dependent continuant (bfo)
- ↳ State (proethica-core)
- ↳ Epistemic State
- ↳ ConfirmedRiskFindingState (proethica-intermediate-extended)
- ↳ InsiderKnowledgeAdvantageState (proethica-intermediate-extended)
- ↳ PostEngagementDiscoveryState (proethica-intermediate-extended)
- ↳ UnquantifiedRiskState (proethica-intermediate-extended)
Definition
A condition of what an agent knows, believes, or is uncertain of with respect to facts material to a decision. As a content kind it captures the agent's knowledge state, the classical Aristotelian epistemic condition for responsibility: an agent is answerable for conduct in proportion to what the agent knew or should have known; Sarmiento et al. (2022) name epistemic aspects fundamental for moving beyond causality to responsibility. Its deontic relevance is that knowledge conditions the obligations governing informed decision and decision-under-uncertainty.
Knowledge-and-belief condition of an agent; the typed home of the responsibility epistemic condition.
Definition source
- Govindarajulu and Bringsjord (2017). On Automating the Doctrine of Double Effect. Proceedings of the Twenty-Sixth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI 2017): 4722-4730 (doi:10.24963/ijcai.2017/658).
- Sarmiento et al. (2022). Action Languages Based Actual Causality in Decision Making Contexts. PRIMA 2022: Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems, LNCS 13753: 243-259 (doi:10.1007/978-3-031-21203-1_15).
Mappings & provenance
references
references
Properties
Persistence Type
inertial
Property Structure
1 · Object and Data Properties
rdfs:domain on this class or ancestor
| Property | Range | Description |
|---|---|---|
| activatedByEvent inherited | Event | Event Calculus initiation: relates a State to the Event whose occurrence brings the State into being (the start boundary of the fluent). |
| activatesConstraint inherited | Constraint | Relates a State to a Constraint that the obtaining of the State activates, bounding the actions available to the role-bearers the state concerns (the S->Cs linkage). |
| activatesObligation inherited | Obligation | Relates a State to an Obligation that the obtaining of the State makes applicable. This is the forward, activating complement of defeasibleUnder (which records the State under which an obligation yields): a state such as hazard exposure or an undertaken commitment can bring an obligation into force for the role-bearers it concerns. |
| affects inherited | Agent | Relates a State to the Agent(s) it bears on in the case scenario (the parties whose situation the state changes), distinct from the obligations/constraints the state activates (activatesObligation / activatesConstraint). |
| terminatedByEvent inherited | Event | Event Calculus termination: relates a State to the Event whose occurrence ends the State (the end boundary of the fluent). |
2 · Definitional Attributes
SHACL definitional shape
| Attribute | Property (sh:path) | Description |
|---|---|---|
| state archetype | stateCategory | The content archetype, which drives the archetype subClassOf typing: EpistemicState, RiskState, CompetenceState, EmergencyState, ConflictOfInterestState, RegulatoryState, TemporalState, ResourceState, DisclosureState. A classification of the state content, explicitly NOT the activatesObligation relation. A routing input, not stored as a literal. |
| persistence type | persistenceType | Whether the state is an inertial fluent (holds until an event terminates it) or a non-inertial fluent (true at a single time point), the inertial versus non-inertial fluent distinction of Berreby et al. (2017) in the Event Calculus; a class-level datatype, a property of the fluent predicate itself. |
3 · Bearer Attributes
SHACL property shape
individual data
| Attribute | Property (sh:path) | Description |
|---|---|---|
| urgency level | urgencyLevel | The salience or acuteness of the state in this case (Jones 1991 moral-intensity salience; components include temporal immediacy, magnitude of consequences, and proximity). |
| activates obligation | activatesObligation | The obligation the state makes applicable, via the outgoing S->O activatesObligation edge; the incoming counterpart is defeasibleUnder (O->S), recording the obligation that yields when this state obtains. Range: Obligation. |
| activates constraint | activatesConstraint | The constraint the state activates, via the outgoing S->Cs activatesConstraint edge, bounding the actions available while the state holds. Range: Constraint. |
| affects | affects | The agent(s) the state bears on, via the S->Agent affects edge, resolved from the affected-parties text by embedding shortlist + LLM multi-select. Range: Agent. |
| subject | subject | The entity the state holds of (the bearer text); a kept literal that also feeds the defeasibility prompt as state context. |
| active period | activePeriod | The period over which the state holds, as extracted text. |
| triggering event | triggeringEvent | The event bringing the state into being; kept verbatim on the individual and also resolved to the activatedByEvent edge (the start boundary of the fluent). |
| terminated by | terminatedBy | What removes the state; kept verbatim on the individual and also resolved to the terminatedByEvent edge (the end boundary of the fluent). |
| activated by event | activatedByEvent | The Event whose occurrence initiates this state, via the outgoing activatedByEvent edge (the start boundary of the fluent). Range: Event. |
| terminated by event | terminatedByEvent | The Event whose occurrence ends this state, via the outgoing terminatedByEvent edge (the end boundary of the fluent). Range: Event. |
4 · Referenced By
rdfs:range on this class or ancestor
| From | Property | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Action | initiates inherited | Event Calculus initiation: relates a happening (Action or Event) to a State (fluent) that begins to hold as a result and persists until terminated (inertial) or holds momentarily (non-inertial). |
| Action | terminates inherited | Event Calculus termination: relates a happening (Action or Event) to a State (fluent) that ceases to hold as a result. |
| Event | initiates inherited | Event Calculus initiation: relates a happening (Action or Event) to a State (fluent) that begins to hold as a result and persists until terminated (inertial) or holds momentarily (non-inertial). |
| Event | terminates inherited | Event Calculus termination: relates a happening (Action or Event) to a State (fluent) that ceases to hold as a result. |
| Obligation | defeasibleUnder inherited | Relates an obligation to a State whose obtaining renders the obligation defeasible, that is, subject to override by a competing obligation with stronger normative support. The State specifies the context in which the obligation yields. |
Used in cases 15
Case ontologies that instantiate this class or one of its base-ontology descendants. Computed from each individual's type, so the list stays current as cases are extracted. The originating case is shown under Extraction details.
Case 4 Case 6 Case 7 Case 8 Case 9 Case 10 Case 16 Case 20 Case 56 Case 57 Case 59 Case 75 Case 96 Case 102 Case 171@prefix core: <http://proethica.org/ontology/core#> .
@prefix dcterms: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> .
@prefix iao: <http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/IAO_> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix pcsh: <http://proethica.org/shapes/core#> .
@prefix proeth: <http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix sh: <http://www.w3.org/ns/shacl#> .
@prefix skos: <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
proeth:EpistemicState a owl:Class ;
rdfs:label "Epistemic State"@en ;
proeth:persistenceType "inertial" ;
iao:0000115 "A condition of what an agent knows, believes, or is uncertain of with respect to facts material to a decision. As a content kind it captures the agent's knowledge state, the classical Aristotelian epistemic condition for responsibility: an agent is answerable for conduct in proportion to what the agent knew or should have known; Sarmiento et al. (2022) name epistemic aspects fundamental for moving beyond causality to responsibility. Its deontic relevance is that knowledge conditions the obligations governing informed decision and decision-under-uncertainty."@en ;
iao:0000119 "Govindarajulu and Bringsjord (2017). On Automating the Doctrine of Double Effect. Proceedings of the Twenty-Sixth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI 2017): 4722-4730 (doi:10.24963/ijcai.2017/658).",
"Sarmiento et al. (2022). Action Languages Based Actual Causality in Decision Making Contexts. PRIMA 2022: Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems, LNCS 13753: 243-259 (doi:10.1007/978-3-031-21203-1_15)." ;
dcterms:references <https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21203-1_15>,
<https://doi.org/10.24963/ijcai.2017/658> ;
rdfs:comment "Knowledge-and-belief condition of an agent; the typed home of the responsibility epistemic condition."@en ;
rdfs:subClassOf core:State ;
skos:definition "A condition of what an agent knows, believes, or is uncertain of with respect to facts material to a decision. As a content kind it captures the agent's knowledge state, the classical Aristotelian epistemic condition for responsibility: an agent is answerable for conduct in proportion to what the agent knew or should have known; Sarmiento et al. (2022) name epistemic aspects fundamental for moving beyond causality to responsibility. Its deontic relevance is that knowledge conditions the obligations governing informed decision and decision-under-uncertainty."@en .
pcsh:CaseAnnotationShape a sh:NodeShape ;
rdfs:label "Shared per-case annotation schema (all nine components)"@en ;
rdfs:comment "The cross-component annotation fields on committed case individuals: proeth:confidence (extraction confidence, decimal; all components except Action, whose Step-3 contract carries no confidence field), proeth:textReferences (verbatim supporting quotes, universal), proeth-prov sourceText (the source snippet, on the Step-1/2 provenance layers; Step-3 A/E individuals ground via textReferences only), and the involvement gloss (proeth:caseInvolvement on role individuals, proeth:caseContext on obligation, capability, and constraint individuals). Values are per-individual; the fields do not individuate any type."@en ;
sh:property [ sh:description "Extraction confidence for this individual (0 to 1)." ;
sh:name "confidence" ;
sh:order 1 ;
sh:path proeth:confidence ],
[ sh:description "Verbatim case quotes supporting this individual." ;
sh:name "text references" ;
sh:order 2 ;
sh:path proeth:textReferences ],
[ sh:description "How this individual figures in the case narrative (role individuals; the same text is routed into rdfs:comment)." ;
sh:name "case involvement" ;
sh:order 3 ;
sh:path proeth:caseInvolvement ],
[ sh:description "Grounding context in this case (obligation, capability, and constraint individuals)." ;
sh:name "case context" ;
sh:order 4 ;
sh:path proeth:caseContext ] ;
sh:targetClass core:Action,
core:Capability,
core:Constraint,
core:Event,
core:Obligation,
core:Principle,
core:Resource,
core:Role,
core:State .
pcsh:StateDefinitionShape a sh:NodeShape ;
rdfs:label "State definition schema (type-level, descriptive, field contract)"@en ;
rdfs:comment "What individuates a state TYPE: its content archetype (drives the archetype subClassOf typing) and its persistence type (inertial vs non-inertial fluent, a class-level datatype). Its per-case urgency and the activatesObligation edge are per-individual and declared on StatePropertyShape, mirroring the Role/Principle/Obligation Definition/Property split and the state scopeNote (which names the condition and its persistence type as type-defining). Descriptive only (no validation result); state_category is a routing input, not stored as a literal."@en ;
sh:property [ sh:description "The content archetype, which drives the archetype subClassOf typing: EpistemicState, RiskState, CompetenceState, EmergencyState, ConflictOfInterestState, RegulatoryState, TemporalState, ResourceState, DisclosureState. A classification of the state content, explicitly NOT the activatesObligation relation. A routing input, not stored as a literal." ;
sh:name "state archetype" ;
sh:order 1 ;
sh:path proeth:stateCategory ],
[ sh:description "Whether the state is an inertial fluent (holds until an event terminates it) or a non-inertial fluent (true at a single time point), the inertial versus non-inertial fluent distinction of Berreby et al. (2017) in the Event Calculus; a class-level datatype, a property of the fluent predicate itself." ;
sh:name "persistence type" ;
sh:order 2 ;
sh:path proeth:persistenceType ] ;
sh:targetClass core:State .
pcsh:StatePropertyShape a sh:NodeShape ;
rdfs:label "State per-case schema (individual data, non-definitional)"@en ;
rdfs:comment "What a given state INDIVIDUAL is described by in a specific case: its bearer and holding period, its urgency (per-case salience), the event boundaries of the fluent, and the obligations, constraints, and agents its obtaining engages via edges. These do NOT individuate the state TYPE (that is StateDefinitionShape); their values are per-case, asserted on the individual. The proeth:principleTransformation synthesis literal (the S->P->O grounding written onto the individual by the state-edge pass) is deliberately not part of the extraction field contract. Descriptive only."@en ;
sh:property [ sh:description "The salience or acuteness of the state in this case (Jones 1991 moral-intensity salience; components include temporal immediacy, magnitude of consequences, and proximity)." ;
sh:name "urgency level" ;
sh:order 1 ;
sh:path proeth:urgencyLevel ],
[ sh:description "The obligation the state makes applicable, via the outgoing S->O activatesObligation edge; the incoming counterpart is defeasibleUnder (O->S), recording the obligation that yields when this state obtains. Range: Obligation." ;
sh:name "activates obligation" ;
sh:order 2 ;
sh:path core:activatesObligation ],
[ sh:description "The constraint the state activates, via the outgoing S->Cs activatesConstraint edge, bounding the actions available while the state holds. Range: Constraint." ;
sh:name "activates constraint" ;
sh:order 3 ;
sh:path core:activatesConstraint ],
[ sh:description "The agent(s) the state bears on, via the S->Agent affects edge, resolved from the affected-parties text by embedding shortlist + LLM multi-select. Range: Agent." ;
sh:name "affects" ;
sh:order 4 ;
sh:path core:affects ],
[ sh:description "The entity the state holds of (the bearer text); a kept literal that also feeds the defeasibility prompt as state context." ;
sh:name "subject" ;
sh:order 5 ;
sh:path proeth:subject ],
[ sh:description "The period over which the state holds, as extracted text." ;
sh:name "active period" ;
sh:order 6 ;
sh:path proeth:activePeriod ],
[ sh:description "The event bringing the state into being; kept verbatim on the individual and also resolved to the activatedByEvent edge (the start boundary of the fluent)." ;
sh:name "triggering event" ;
sh:order 7 ;
sh:path proeth:triggeringEvent ],
[ sh:description "What removes the state; kept verbatim on the individual and also resolved to the terminatedByEvent edge (the end boundary of the fluent)." ;
sh:name "terminated by" ;
sh:order 8 ;
sh:path proeth:terminatedBy ],
[ sh:description "The Event whose occurrence initiates this state, via the outgoing activatedByEvent edge (the start boundary of the fluent). Range: Event." ;
sh:name "activated by event" ;
sh:order 9 ;
sh:path core:activatedByEvent ],
[ sh:description "The Event whose occurrence ends this state, via the outgoing terminatedByEvent edge (the end boundary of the fluent). Range: Event." ;
sh:name "terminated by event" ;
sh:order 10 ;
sh:path core:terminatedByEvent ] ;
sh:targetClass core:State .