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Re: [ontolog-forum] Knowledge Diary

To: "[ontolog-forum] " <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Richard H.McCullough <rhm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: KR-language <KR-language@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Pat Hayes <phayes@xxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 15:31:12 -0500
Message-id: <1B1EB0F9-8B28-45D9-BA02-ABFB0D2C37B9@xxxxxxx>

On Apr 7, 2009, at 8:33 AM, Richard H. McCullough wrote:    (01)

> <John Sowa>
> But we have consistently complained about the vagueness of
> what you call "context".
>
> <Dick McCullough>
> Here's a thought experiment to explain the nature of "context".
>
> from <www-rdf-interest@xxxxxx> 15 December 2002
> begin QUOTE
> Here's my most fundamental view of context.
> Imagine that I decide to record all my knowledge in a diary.
> Every day, I write propositions in my diary, numbering them 1, 2, ....    (02)

Actually, you can't do this. What you write in your diary will be  
sentences, not propositions. Sentences are simply marks, arrangements  
of symbols. They express propositions by virtue of the language in  
which the sentences are written having a semantics: this semantics -  
the meaning, if you like - is what makes sentences express  
propositions. Now, if you claim to be writing (sentences which  
express) propositions, then you are presuming that the language you  
are writing in already has a semantics. Which is fair enough if you  
are writing in English for competent English readers, say (though, as  
we all know, fraught with problems of mutual misunderstanding, even  
when you are writing notes to be read by yourself in the future.) But  
as you are writing in a new language of your own invention, with a  
grammar quite different from that of English, then until you tell us  
how your notation maps sentences to propositions - until you give us a  
semantics for your notation - we can't begin to know what these  
propositions, that you claim to be writing, actually are.    (03)

> Today, I record proposition 123456789; the context of proposition
> 123456789 is the list of propositions from 1 to 123456788.
> It's that simple!    (04)

So now (and ignoring the above point for the moment) what exactly do  
the propositions with numbers less than N have to do with proposition  
number N? In what WAYS do these 'contexts' have any influence over the  
meanings of these propositions? (Because I presume they must, or else  
why do you call them 'contexts'?) You need to spell some of this out,  
and then it will not be quite so simple, I predict.    (05)

>
> My KR language and KE program is my way of
> recording, organizing & using a large list of propositions.    (06)

Recording, yes (modulo the basic point about semantics); organizing,  
hardly; using: not at all. You never say how your contexts are USED.    (07)

> end QUOTE
>
> Going from thought experiment back to real life,
> my "context" is the entire contents of my brain.    (08)

Nobody, even you, knows what this is. And in any case, it's not  
enough: your brain doesn't tell ME what YOU mean by "I" or "now".    (09)

Pat    (010)

>
> To make practical use of this "context" in any particular case,
> I can select only those propositions which are relevant to
> the particular case, and I can use genus-differentia definitions
> to summarize the results of many propositions.
>
> Dick McCullough
> http://mkrmke.org
>
>
>
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