Context and Relevance: A Pragmatic Approach

In recent years, AI research has started to take seriously the role of context in developing models. This trend is heralded by a departure from logic-based views and their over-emphasis on the formal aspects of thought processes. The departure, however, has not been complete| some fundamental assumptions of formal logic are still maintained in the new approaches. Similarly, \relevance" remains a major challenge for AI research. This paper outlines an alternative proposal that takes context and relevance as intertwined aspects of thought and intelligence. We argue for a pragmatic approach, which shows better promise than formal logic in dealing with such issues.