For me an amazing thing is that different meanings of words was determined and put together in a defining dictionaries like http://www.merriam-webster.com/.
Formalization of this treasure is just a problem of time.
Most important thing in a skill of definition is that definition is algorithmic by nature:
you ask person - "What is this?". He applies his own algorithm and answes - "This is an atom."
And most amazing thing is that our algorithms are more or less the same;)
In a solid body we may speak only about nucleuses and a cloud of electrons.
If we think about "M-W:atom:1" today it is an "elementary particle".
2008/7/26 John F. Sowa <sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx>
There has been a lot of debate on this list about the relevance
of philosophy to science and the relative importance of science
and common sense for the foundations of ontology.
As an illustration of the issues, the hypothesis of atoms has
undergone a slow development with many surprising twists and
turns since it was first proposed around 440 BC. A century ago,
the physicist/philosopher Ernst Mach was still fighting a losing
battle against the hypothesis of "unobservable" atoms. But the
latest electron microscopes can now produce pictures of atoms
at the picometer scale.
The attached picture shows four kinds of atoms in a crystal:
lead (white circles), zirconium and titanium (fuzzy white blobs),
and oxygen (smaller fuzzy gray blobs). For the article see
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080724150342.htm
Note that one nanometer would correspond to a line of about
8 zirconium, titanium, and oxygen atoms in this crystal.
Following is a brief summary of the development of the atomic
hypothesis from Leucippus and Democritus (440 BC) to the middle
ages, the Renaissance, and the early days of modern chemistry:
http://dbhs.wvusd.k12.ca.us/webdocs/AtomicStructure/Democritus-to-Dalton.html
The chemists were far ahead of the physicists in adopting the
atomic hypothesis. Robert Boyle (1661) used the term "corpuscles"
in his influential book _The Sceptical Chymist_. The modern theory
is based on John Dalton's book of 1803. For an excerpt, see
http://web.lemoyne.edu/~giunta/dalton.html
At the bottom of that excerpt is Dalton's table of atomic weights,
which are systematically skewed by his erroneous assumption that a
molecule of water is composed of one atom of oxygen and one atom
of hydrogen. For other classic papers in chemistry, see
http://web.lemoyne.edu/~giunta/papers.html
William Whewell, who first coined the words 'scientist' and 'physicist',
made important contributions to the history and philosophy of science.
But he also expressed doubts about the atomic hypothesis (1840):
http://web.lemoyne.edu/~giunta/whewell.html
Many physicists were highly skeptical about atoms, and Boltzmann
had to fight an uphill battle to get acceptance for his theory of
statistical mechanics. See
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/statphys-Boltzmann/
Following is a more detailed history of atomism from the 17th to
the 20th century:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atomism-modern/
This brief survey suggests several points that are important for
foundational issues in ontology:
1. There has never been a consensus about detailed foundational
issues in philosophy, science, or common sense.
2. Developments in one of those three areas have major impacts on
the others, and what is called common sense is very strongly
influenced by currently fashionable ideas.
3. We should be highly skeptical about any proposed foundation for
an upper ontology, despite any claims of support from science,
philosophy, common sense, mathematics, or "mainstream" fashions.
This cautionary note does not imply that we should *never* have an
upper ontology, but that the detailed axioms are likely to undergo
major revisions over time. The term 'atom', for example, is still
in use after 2500 years. But the axioms associated with it have
changed enormously over the centuries, and they are likely to
continue developing over time.
As I have said many times, a loosely axiomatized terminology
is immensely valuable. Detailed axioms are essential for many
important applications. But they are much less likely to be
universally acceptable, and they will inevitably undergo
major revisions when applied to different kinds of problems.
John Sowa
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