Let many flowers bloom: a response to An inquiry into computer understanding e

There are two main issues I want to address in this response to Peter Cheeseman's \An inquiry into computer understanding" (hereafter, abbreviated as Inquiry) and \In defense of`An inquiry into computer understand-ing' " (hereafter, abbreviated as Defense): (1) the \right" approach to reasoning about uncertainty and (2) the relationship between logic and probability. 1 Cheeseman's positions on these issues is at times confusing, and occasionally contradictory (as he admits in Defense). Rather than belaboring the contradictions , I will try to focus on the high-level issues, which I believe are important ones for AI.