Hi John. (01)
On May 4, 2008, at 23:06 , John F. Sowa wrote: (02)
> Bill,
>
> That can also be restated as the refrigerator principle:
>
>> Everyone ought to agree on a principle of least commitment.
>
> Restatement: "When in doubt, throw it out." (03)
Huzzah for that. (04)
>> To distinguish, say, between universal and particular, has
>> paid dividends in actual applications I've worked on
>> where these were conflated.
>
> The useful distinction can be stated in other terms, such
> as types and instances. Or even predicates and instances. (05)
That's not the same distinction. You're speaking only of roles wrt an
instantiation relation (06)
(x,y) (instance(x) & type(y)) <-> instantiates(x,y) (07)
I don't find that very useful at all. The distinction I'm talking
about is between two classes (08)
(x) (Type(x) <-> ~Indiv(x)) (09)
... (if you don't like the word 'Universal') (010)
> My complaint about the terms 'universal' and 'particular'
> can be seen in the enormous amount of ink that has been
> spilled over the past few millennia on those terms.
>
> I'll agree that some of that discussion has made useful
> points, but any pair of terms that requires so much
> discussion to explain is not a pair that is pedagogically
> useful to perpetuate. (011)
To be clear, you're talking about the *names*, right? Because even if
we agree not to use them, I'm going to find an ontology where I can say (012)
(instantiates MadisonSquareGarden JohnSowa) (013)
, with these names conventionally interpreted, pretty damned hard to
make sense of. (014)
> My recommendation is to apply the refrigerator principle
> to those two terms. (015)
I'm happy to toss any overly burdened terms so long as the same work
gets done. (016)
.bill (017)
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