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Re: [ontolog-forum] A different approach to ontology

To: Christopher Menzel <cmenzel@xxxxxxxx>
Cc: "[ontolog-forum]" <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Pat Hayes <phayes@xxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 11 May 2008 16:08:44 -0500
Message-id: <p0623090ac44d103e77fb@[192.168.1.2]>
At 2:52 PM -0500 5/11/08, Christopher Menzel wrote:
>  > The papers I've seen on possible worlds seem to cover a wide variety 
>>  of
>>  other topics like, necessity, possibility, etc ...
>
>Yes, worlds (re-)entered the philosophical lexicon to provide an 
>intuitive underpinning to Kripke's formal semantics for modal logic.  
>Formally, the set of "possible worlds" in Kripke semantics is just a 
>set W of featureless objects whose role is basically to index a 
>collection of Tarski interpretations.  Since, in a Kripke model of a 
>given modal language, every sentence of the language is true or false 
>at any given element w of W, "possible world" is a reasonably natural 
>and intuitive label, as a possible world is, intuitively, a complete 
>"way things could be", a complete "alternative description" of reality.    (01)

>From which it also seems reasonable - still 
speaking intuitively - to say that a Tarski 
interpretation is a complete "way things can be" 
in the same sense, i.e. a (formal, mathematical 
object which stands for a) world. Right?    (02)

Pat    (03)

>
>>  http://www-csli.stanford.edu/~jperry/PHILPAPERS/posswld.pdf
>>
>>  Would you happen to have a reference to an academic paper the 
>>  defines an
>>  interpretation as a world?
>
>Well, that's sort of mixing apples and oranges  Interpretations are 
>formal, mathematical models.  Worlds (unless stipulated otherwise) are 
>inherently, informal, philosophical entities.  Each bears similarities 
>to the other, but one can't *define* a formal notion in terms of an 
>informal one.
>
>>  CL model theory doesn't make the same claim: that an interpretation 
>>  is a world. Why?
>
>I'd say for the reason just noted.
>
>-chris
>
>
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