Matthew,
I think we are agreed on that point: (01)
>
> MW: You may recall that in a couple of posts I have been talking about
> what I called "abstract theories" being theories that were independent of
> 3D/4D (for example) but could be combined with either, and of course 3D
and
> 4D themselves. I think this is where your ambition of a "Foundation
> Ontology" properly lies in terms of being the elements that other
ontologies can
> be built out of. The difference I see from what I have been interpreting
> your proposal to be is that it seems to me that you have been proposing a
> specific upper ontology as part of your FO. What I am suggesting you
> develop here would not have this, but would include what was effectively
the
> abstract terms needed by any upper level ontology. These could be
> abstracted from the existing work available.
>
> MW: Other things you would need to do to support interoperability would
> be to develop mappings between major competing theories, such as (but far
> from limited to) 3D/4D.
>
> MW: Is this compatible with your vision?
>
Yes, I expect that the practical goal of translating among different
theories with incompatible *models* such as 3D/4D can be accomplished in
most cases, as Pat Hayes has shown for (at least one version) of 3D and 4D.
The models themselves may be contradictory (e.g. endurantist: "3D objects
exist, 4D objects don't" vs. perdurantist "4D objects exist, 3D objects
don't") but these models can be represented as extension theories of the FO;
the models themselves are not used directly in reasoning, even though
assertions about real world based on those models are used (I hope the
distinction isn't too obscure)- it is the specific assertions about
real-world things that can be translated accurately. (02)
So yes, the kinds of terms in the FO that provide this translation ability
will be more abstract than the average term, but I expect that "Person"
(perhaps several definitions) will also be included, though Persons are not
at all abstract. I don't know exactly how many such basic concepts there
are but I expect at least several thousand. (03)
Pat (04)
Patrick Cassidy
MICRA, Inc.
908-561-3416
cell: 908-565-4053
cassidy@xxxxxxxxx (05)
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