Hmmm - terminology again. (01)
To clarify: as I use it, an existential "qualifier" is a rule included in a
knowledge base that asserts that for each instance of a particular Type of
entity, there must also exist another entity of some specific type. This is
a "qualifier" because it qualifies the knowledge about an entity (asserts a
quality to the entity, involving the existence of another entity). Thus to
assert that every person has a birth mother, we might see:
(forall (?PERSON)
(implies (instance ?PERSON Person)
(thereExists (?MOTHER)
(and
(instance ?MOTHER FemalePerson)
(thereExists (?EVENT)
(and
(instance ?EVENT BirthEvent)
(wasTheMotherInEvent ?MOTHER ?EVENT)
(wasTheBabyInEvent ?PERSON ?EVENT)))))))
. . . among a lot of other things one might want to say. (02)
Wheras, I think of an existential "quantifier" as the symbol "thereExists"
or whatever symbol one wants to use that means the same thing. What one
does with a logical symbol is to use it according to the rules of whatever
logic one wants to use. What one does with an existential "qualifier" (a
logical statement of which the above is an example) -- that depends on one's
purposes and how fast one's computer can work through all the calculations. (03)
The original email uses the term "quantifier" but the query seemed to me
to be focused on the issue of its use in statements that I call "existential
qualifiers" as described above. (04)
Pat (05)
Patrick Cassidy
MICRA, Inc.
908-561-3416
cell: 908-565-4053
cassidy@xxxxxxxxx (06)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ontolog-forum-
> bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Chris Menzel
> Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 9:44 PM
> To: [ontolog-forum]
> Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] brainwaves (WAS: to concept or not to
> concept, is this a question?)
>
> On Wed, Dec 12, 2007 at 09:07:28PM -0500, Patrick Cassidy wrote:
> > The issue of what to do with existential qualifiers is important, and
> > the answer, I think, will have to depend on how the ontology is going
> > to be used, and how big it is.
>
> I'm not sure what existential qualifiers are, but I think the OP was
> asking about existential *quantifiers*.
>
> -chris
>
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