Resolving misunderstandings about belief functions. In Response to J. Pearl's Criticisms in "Reasoning with Belief Functions: an Analysis of Compatibility"

Judea Pearl has made an excellent presentation of many of the errors that pervade the belief function (BF) literature, some being put forward, even though Pearl knows their answer, for the mere purpose of provoking reactions. So it is a good opportunity for me to clarify the situation. I shall start with a summary of my interpretation of the use of BF to quantify someone's belief (called the transferable belief model) and follow on with a systematic refutation of Pearl's criticisms. Sections and relations numbers are preceded by a P or an S referring to Pearl's or my own presentation, respectively.