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Re: [ontolog-forum] Ontology and methodology

To: "Chris Partridge" <mail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "'[ontolog-forum] '" <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Pat Hayes <phayes@xxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2007 10:15:51 -0500
Message-id: <p06230905c2245840a9ca@[10.100.0.26]>
>John,
>
>I think I can see where the misunderstanding arises.
>
>JS> For example, a pet is an animal that plays a certain role
>with respect to another animal, usually human.  (For example,
>the gorilla Koko had a pet cat, which she named "All-Ball"
>in her sign language.)
>
>To keep is simple assume John is an employee of IBM.
>
>Would there be a single object (John), who is an instance of both employee
>and person, in your scheme of things? I think you need this to get your
>sub-type relation.
>
>In my scheme of things there would be two things, firstly John and secondly
>John's being an employee of IBM. Where the first object is an instance of
>person and the second of employee. In this scheme, it is difficult to get
>the sub-type relation.    (01)

Whoa. John's *being an employee* of IBM (my 
emphasis) sounds like a trope, a particular 
instance of  the employer/employee relationship. 
Or maybe something else: but it sure doesn't 
sound like *an employee*. If there is a fire 
alarm in a building, all the employees are 
required to evacuate and stand in the car-park to 
be counted. One counts the people in the 
car-park, right? One doesn't count the 
being-an-employee-s in the car park. I don't know 
how I would be able to see those, anyway.    (02)

>This enables me to allocate responsibility to the employee but not to the
>person.    (03)

So if I steal some money from my employer, can I 
plead in defence that I am a person, but the 
theft was carried out by the employee, so I 
should be released?    (04)

You get problems like this when you multiply 
entities. Seems to me pretty obvious that I am a 
person and I am also an employee, and also that 
there is just one of me.    (05)

Pat    (06)

>
>A legal example of this is "corporation sole"
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation_sole
>which allows rights to pass from one 'role' to another.
>
>Regards,
>Chris
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>[mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John F. Sowa
>Sent: 19 March 2007 12:30
>To: [ontolog-forum]
>Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Ontology and methodology
>
>Chris,
>
>I would say it's much more than "often necessary".  It's
>absolutely essential to distinguish them:
>
>CP> In business systems it is often necessary to distinguish
>  > between the 'role' someone plays, whether more general,
>  > such as employee, or more specific, such as FX Dealer
>  > in order to carry out the business processes.
>
>For example, a pet is an animal that plays a certain role
>with respect to another animal, usually human.  (For example,
>the gorilla Koko had a pet cat, which she named "All-Ball"
>in her sign language.)
>
>In the type hierarchy, I place all role types under the
>supertype Role, which is further differentiated according
>to a wide variety of different characteristics.
>
>Pet, for example, is in the sublattice under Role, but
>it is also under Animal, since every pet is an animal.
>Then PetCat is a subtype of both Pet and Cat.  A cat
>is a cat for its entire life, but it may become a pet
>and later stray.
>
>Employee is under Role, and depending on your business,
>you might include it under Human, Animal, or even Animate.
>(I use the category Animate as a supertype of Animal that
>can also include such things as robots and angels.)
>
>  > What is key here is that the role is the subject of
>  > rights and responsibilities....  Also, these rights
>  > and responsibilities track the employee (FX Dealer)
>  > through time, but NOT the person.
>
>I certainly agree.  In CLCE or any other dialect of
>Common Logic, the type Employee would have additional
>axioms beyond just the statement Employee < Person.
>
>  > Hence, it does not make sense to think, as you seem to suggest
>  > in your mail that, at a point in time, employees are a subtype
>  > of person - without also giving some explanation about what
>  > happens over time - and how an employee at a point in time can
>  > act ex officio as a person and not an employee.
>
>Of course.  How could you possibly imagine that I would ever
>suggest anything else?  No email note is big enough to include
>all possible qualifications.
>
>All roles are temporary, even though some, such as Brother or
>Mother, might last a lifetime.  The thematic roles, such as
>Agent, Experiencer, Patient, Recipient, etc., have durations
>that last only as long as the action or state specified by a verb,
>which may be very short indeed.
>
>John
>
>
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