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Re: [ontolog-forum] Definitions, Dictionaries, and Meanings

To: "[ontolog-forum]" <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: paola.dimaio@xxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 03:20:13 +0700
Message-id: <c09b00eb0901181220u78255ca2w974bba6c3587ad6f@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Len,
I definitely agree, and wish you good luck :-)    (01)

 prior attempts to do similar things have generated
very interesting and long discussions......but never ended up in any
usable agreement    (02)

I think when trying to define the word 'ontology' people have been
discussing for years, and generated over twenty valid definitions, and
still struggle to put their points accross precisely, as each
definition can be
interpreted differently by different people who place it in different
context (relating to different axioms)    (03)

I think it may be also agree that a definition should not be longer
than a sentence or a phrase or two at the most, and, that more than
one definitions is possible, as long as whoever uses the term (we had
a long discussion about the meaning of 'term' two years back)
specifies what meaning they are referencing.    (04)

Kind of really representative issuesf the challenges that ontology
engineering faces    (05)

Despite the lack of results so far, however,  it has been extremely
entertaining and educational    (06)

Opening a glossary page on the wiki could be like opening   another
pandora's box, but hay
thats the name of the game I guess    (07)


On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 2:30 AM, Len Yabloko <lenya@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> John and all,
>
> Thank you for the link. I have followed it and have some comments:
>>
>>As useful background, I often cite the following tutorial
>>by the philosopher Norman Swartz:
>>
>>    http://www.sfu.ca/philosophy/swartz/definitions.htm
>>
>
> I found it not quite satisfactory for the purposes of this forum. IMHO - it 
>lacks interdisciplinary connections in defining the terms which are equally 
>important to other fields besides philosophy and linguistics. I doubt that 
>this tutorial will answer the need for suitable common reference as asked 
>repeatedly by the participants here.
>
> For example, following explanation:
> "The extension of a term or phrase is understood to be the timeless class of 
>all things which properly 'fall under' or are described by that phrase."
> This may be workable for linguist, but not for computer scientists or 
>mathematician (although I am not one of them).
>
> Here is quite different definition of the same term in 
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extension_(predicate_logic)
> "The extension of a predicate ? a truth-valued function ? is the set of 
>tuples of values that, used as arguments, satisfy the predicate. Such a set of 
>tuples is a relation."
> In this case at least there a link to alternative definition from another 
>field, and even suggestion that definitions should be merged. However, no one 
>so far had attempted to that publicly.
>
> I recall several discussion on this forum that attempted to connect the terms 
>"intension", "extension", "class", "predicate" etc. into coherent framework, 
>but IMO failed to do so for the very same reason - lack of interdisciplinary 
>definition that would satisfy the need of constructive discussion.
>
> Unfortunately, I can not offer any better alternative. However I do believe 
>that it is possible. May be we should attempt this relatively humble objective 
>before trying to develop yet another FO or repository of such. I think step 
>one in that direction would be to accept the absence of common definitions, 
>which should be apparent from following discussion over a long period of time 
>(as I did).
>
> If anyone agrees with me I would suggest to begin with notions of "intention" 
>and "extension" as it relates to notions of "model" and "theory".
>
>
>
>
>
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>    (08)



-- 
Paola Di Maio    (09)

**********************************
Forthcoming    (010)

i-Semantics 2009, 2 - 4 September 2009, Graz, Austria. www.i-semantics.tugraz.at    (011)

SEMAPRO 2009, Malta
http://www.iaria.org/conferences2009/RegistrationSEMAPRO09.html    (012)

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