Re: [ontolog-forum] Ontology and methodology

[Christopher Menzel <cmenzel@xxxxxxxx>]

Peter Brown wrote:
> if a mule can be considered as a person, then something is  
> seriously out of kilter. Your modeller is no longer modelling the  
> real world but attempting to re-create the world to fit his/her model.    (01)

But this is exactly the sort of situation you'll regularly find in  
ontologies residing on open networks.  You are never going to  
regiment uniform usage.  But this is also exactly the sort of thing  
the ontology paradigm is designed to handle.  If the ontology in  
question (call it O1) is properly designed, it will provide axioms  
that enable (or go a good distance toward enabling) an agent to be  
able to infer that "mule" in O1 indicates a subclass of the class  
indicated by "person" in O1.  And of course '"person" in O1" is  
itself shorthand for a URL that will prevent the introduction of  
ambiguous terms into another ontology that might want to import the  
information in O1.    (02)

Chris Menzel    (03)




_________________________________________________________________
Message Archives: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/  
Subscribe/Config: http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/ontolog-forum/  
Unsubscribe: mailto:ontolog-forum-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Shared Files: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/
Community Wiki: http://ontolog.cim3.net/wiki/ 
To Post: mailto:ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx    (04)