Closed World Assumption - Argument From Ignorance - Open World Assumption
- Closed World Assumption (CWA) is the assumption that what is not known to be true must be false
- Argument From Ignorance (AFI) is the assumption that what is not known to be false must be true
- Open World Assumption (OWA) is the opposite, it is the assumptions that (either):
- what is not known to be true is simply unknown
- what is not know to be false is simply unknown
Example
consider the following statement: “Juan is a citizen of the USA.”
Now, what if we were to ask “Is Juan a citizen of Colombia?”
- under CWA, the answer is no
- under AFI, the answer is yes
- under OWA, the answer is unknown