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Re: [ontolog-forum] Just What Is an Ontology, Anyway?

To: "[ontolog-forum] " <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: "Godfrey Rust" <godfrey.rust@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:52:47 -0000
Message-id: <60ECDE9B5D664B9FA0E1B133D861BAFA@GodfreyPC>
Dear Bill (A)
 
We're all prepared to agree on a lot of common working assumptions about reality with certain other people, and to trust those to a greater or lesser degree. Many of those assumptions are, in practice, more or less universally held. But I didn't read any argument with that in what Bill (B) was saying about what is *real* - I took that to be a statement about our inability to lay certain claim to objective truth (and excuse me if I misread). Agreement doesn't make something true - it just means its agreed. Even Einstein said everything is an approximation, though the maths may still get a NASA spaceship accurately to Mars. Betting our life on something is faith, not absolute knowledge, even if its a really good bet; and not every airplane lands safely.
 
Godfrey
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, October 30, 2009 3:08 PM
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Just What Is an Ontology, Anyway?

Dear Bill

On Oct 30, 2009, at 09:09 , Burkett, William [USA] wrote:

Besides: who is any of us to say how things *are* in the world.  All we can realistically do is express our view of them.

Well, for starters we'd need to consider how certain one needs to be of some propositions to say things "are" that way (the propositions are true).  Or how certain we need to be to grant license to another to do so.  Assuming we can get past that, though...

Every day we give license to others to say how things "are" in the world.  Those include at one extreme mathematicians (leaving off what part of that is "in the world"), followed by physicists, engineers, biologists, etc.  In some cases we bet our lives on their being right about how things "are" - for example the last time you or I set foot on an airplane.

So, your version of Kantianism kind of doesn't hold up in practice, not to mention the fact that you seem quite sure of the reality (i.e. being "in the world") of language, yourself, etc in expressing those views.

.bill

Bill Andersen 
Ontology Works, Inc. (www.ontologyworks.com)
3600 O'Donnell Street, Suite 600
Baltimore, MD 21224
Office: +1.410.675.1201
Cell: +1.443.858.6444
Fax: +1.410.675.1204





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