Sean, (01)
Your discussion is useful for bring out 2 of the ideas that I was
thinking about. (02)
>The question is then not whether one system was >more truthlike than
another, but whether the >differentia are adequate for our purposes. (03)
Yes, this may be in part what Pat is thinking about when he talks about
things being simpler than John's argument was suggesting. For most
applications we find that we don't need to consider Archaea as a 6th
Kingdom. For most things it makes no difference. But this implies, to
me at least, that we are knowingly deviating from reality (or more
likely reality) and that is explicitly true of on ontologies. So we are
winding up a distance from reality. That's might be OK, in my opinion,
if we are aware of it for practical reasons. It's just that I wouldn't
want to then say that the ontology is just about reality. It has some
practical aspects too from a usage standpoint. (04)
And as you say:
>A consequential question - are ontologies (in the >computing sense)
defined only by models, or can >they be defined by differentia, and what
would this >mean for interoperability? (05)
If we don't have good criteria for doing this we wind up with ontology
silos. (06)
Gary Berg-Cross, Ph.D.
Spatial Ontology Community of Practice (SOCoP)
http://www.visualknowledge.com/wiki/socop
Executive Secretariat
Semantic Technology
EM&I
Suite 350 455 Spring park Place
Herndon VA 20170
703-742-0585 (07)
-----Original Message-----
From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Barker,
Sean (UK)
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2007 11:30 AM
To: [ontolog-forum]
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] confounded models (08)
Alternatively, one could treat the taxonomy not as a model, (these terms
'are an image of' reality) but as a system of differentia (these
criteria map reality into this set of terms). The question is then not
whether one system was more truthlike than another, but whether the
differentia are adequate for our purposes. (09)
This is not to say that a model and set of differentia are mutually
exclusive - 'ideally' they should give the same system - but using one
does not require that one construct the other. (010)
A consequential question - are ontologies (in the computing sense)
defined only by models, or can they be defined by differentia, and what
would this mean for interoperability? (011)
Sean Barker
Bristol, UK (012)
This mail is publicly posted to a distribution list as part of a process
of public discussion, any automatically generated statements to the
contrary non-withstanding. It is the opinion of the author, and does not
represent an official company view. (013)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
> Ingvar Johansson
> Sent: 18 July 2007 16:03
> To: [ontolog-forum]
> Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] confounded models
>
>
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> Gary Berg-Cross schrieb:
> > Now, if I had relied on earlier biological understanding I
> would have
> > a different taxonomy of life, kingdoms etc. No
> superkingdoms at all.
> >
> > Did this earlier view reflect biological reality? Which of the
> > alternatives discussed above reflects reality now?
> >
>
> I would say that the earlier view had quite a high degree of
> truthlikeness, and that the more recent view probably has a somewhat
> higher degree of truthlikeness. (I hope have you read at
> least part of a
> discussion on the notion of 'truthlikeness' that took place
> some months
> ago in this forum.)
>
> Ingvar
>
>
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