Whenever we write an axiom, a critic can say that the axiom is true only in a certain context. With a little ingenuity the critic can usually devise a more general context in which the precise form of the axiom doesn't hold. [...] There simply isn't a most general context.

— John McCarthy, Generality in Artificial Intelligence (1987)

Source: http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/generality.html

From 'Generality in Artificial Intelligence', in ACM Turing Award Lectures: The First Twenty Years (1987).

Topics: artificial intelligence