Re: [ontolog-forum] Defining Concept

[Charles D Turnitsa <CTurnits@xxxxxxx>]

Pat, I will try to get a succinct copy of my component based ontology model and send it to you.  It is (as you can guess from my question) being re-written and formalized, but it was the basis of my Master's Thesis some time back.

 One of the things I have found about what I am calling a "concept" in my model is that it is meaningless by itself.  It does not exist by itself, but it gives definition to any entity that exhibits it.  The "space" component in my model is the entity (which are then related to other entities), and the definition of that "space" comes from the complete set of "concepts" that the entity exhibits.  The properties (identifiable characteristics) that an entity can have are each tied to some of the "concepts" that the entity exhibits.

 What my model proposes, of course, is that for a domain with a finite number of entities, there is some finite number of "concepts" that exist, which combine together with other "concepts" to give meaning to those entities. 

 But, as with everything else in the model, I am still refining on it.  Within the next few months, I will have a much more formal definition of the model, which will help with further analysis and refinement.

Chuck

Charles Turnitsa
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-----ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote: -----

To: "John A. Bateman" <bateman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Pat Hayes <phayes@xxxxxxx>
Sent by: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: 19/01/2007 06:29PM
cc: "[ontolog-forum]" <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Defining Concept

>  > Facet
>>
>>  Assembly
>>
>>  Bound or Bounded
>>
>>  Prime (as in an indivisible prime number)
>>
>>  Set
>>
>>  Totality
>>
>>  or
>>
>>  Resource
>
>er... what problem is being sorted out here? All of these
>terms are already overloaded to the nth degree and
>have non-overlapping meanings; as does
>Aspect. If there was ever a good example of why ontology
>can and should use an axiomatised formalisation
>instead of natural language terms, then
>I guess this is it! :-)

I entirely agree. It is impossible to use a
normal English word to express something
technical without  its being overloaded.

I have another problem with this thread: I have
no idea what, er, concept is being discussed.
Charles said:

"....  a universal, non-divisible idea.  This "concept"
when combined with others forms the definition of an entity."

Wha?? First, what distinguishes "universal" ideas
from (I presume) non-universal ones? Second, what
does it mean for an idea to be "divisible"?
Third, what kind of combination are we talking
about? I would suggest (following Fodor) that the
key idea here is not the things you are calling
'concepts', which in almost every detailed
account that has ever been put forward turn out
to be little more than nodes in a graph or points
in a space, but rather the 'combinations' that
they take part in, or rather still the
*structure* of these combinations. It is the
space (or maybe, the network, or the relational
structure, or whatever one wants to call it)
which matters and which gives the
points/nodes/names/identifiers in it the
"conceptual" structure that they have.

Pat Hayes

>
>John B.
>
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