Hi,
I have read your ideas with interest. I think aboput the world in simlar
terms http://www.rstamper.co.uk/
In particular I am interested in exchanging views on semantic analysis.If
yopu are imnterested, i am going to send you my jottings on the subject of
semantic analysis.
Regards, ferenc (01)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ronald Stamper" <stamper.measur@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "[ontolog-forum] " <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 4:27 PM
Subject: [ontolog-forum] Ontologies as
socialmediators(was:Ontologydevelopment method) (02)
Dear Colleagues, (03)
I’d like to contribute to the discussion of ontologies and social
mediators but I’m limited by other demands on my time just now. (04)
In the 1970s I initiated a research programme to examine how better
to fit computer applications into the social/organisational systems
they are intended to serve instead of imposing their mechanical
character on people who were then required to serve the machine. (05)
We began by studying social norms using, as our empirical material,
legislation, which functions rather as ‘programs for people’. The
behaviour of people is not limited to operating on strings of
characters and it mainly concerns operation on the ‘real world’. So
inevitably we had to deal with a) semantic relationships between signs
and things, as opposed to relationships between signs and other signs,
which interested our computer science colleagues, and b) what we mean
by things in the ‘real world’ or ontology in its original sense. (06)
We found good engineering answers (MEASUR) to these questions that
should be of interest to fellow ontologgers. For those who build
organisations and apply computers to their problems, the results are
excellent both in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. (07)
For the present discussion, the most relevant aspects of our work
concern the construction of ontological dependency schemas that
specify how the existence of each thing depends upon the coexistence
of others. For a given domain of activity, the constraints governing
these schemas result in the same ‘semantic normal form’ (SNF). (08)
(Incidentally, the generic-specific hierarchies of ontologgers’
ontologies do not properly belong in our schemas. They do not concern
existence; in our system they are cognitive norms and they are
relative to any given (micro-)culture.) (09)
The schema actually deals with perceptions by capturing aspects of
them that are invariant over cultures and history. Only the most
extreme and rare changes cause that invariance to break down. I
suggest that the SNF is an important, natural social mediator that
assists mutual understanding despite the infinite richness and
subtlety of variations of meaning across culture and history. (010)
Those variations are handled by the norms that govern the existence
of the perceived things represented by the nodes of the SNF. Some of
those norms can be represented by rules, some of which might be
handled computationally but the many that are far too subtle are
accessible via the human agents (individuals or groups) whom we trust
and hold responsible for determining the existence of things. (011)
(I’m sorry if that last sentence puzzles you, but you need to take
account of the underlying ontology-in-the-metaphysical-sense, which is
a presentist form of actualism.) (012)
The SNF should perhaps be called an ontological normal form because
it is linguistically neutral. When one labels the nodes in one or
more languages, it plays the role of a semantic normal form.
Traversing across languages usually implies encountering different
cultures; in that case the subtle differences of perception and
consequently of meaning would be reflected in the changes of norms
associated with the existence of the things represented. (013)
I hope this my interest some ontologgers. My totally inadequate
website (www.rstamper.co.uk) contains at present only two papers but
they do provide an overview. As the research programme always
followed the principles of Popper’s Refutationism, I’m very happy to
receive criticisms. (014)
As soon as I’ve finished the final editing, I’ll make available a
book on the semantic analysis process and its normal form. (015)
Ronald Stamper (016)
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