Is the Minimax's evaluation function an Heuristic function?

Question

Is the Minimax's evaluation function an Heuristic function?

Answer 1

Minimax is an algorithm to determine best next move according to an estimation of a given state.
In the vast majority of cases, it really is an estimation (heuristic) but that's not always the case (e.g. when you give score to a "win" situation - you give it infinity, and you can really say that's what it's worth). Maybe one can argue that's an estimation as well.. But you get the point (-:
Anyhow you can use Minimax either if you estimate, or if you know exactly what's the score of the given states.

Answer 2

Minimax is a rather deterministic algorithm which relies on potentially heuristic evaluations to decide what the next move is. In that sense I wouldn't say it is heuristic, because it will always choose the best possible move.