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Re: [ontolog-forum] Triadic Sign Relations

To: "[ontolog-forum]" <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: "doug foxvog" <doug@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 01:34:46 -0400 (EDT)
Message-id: <1962.74.96.97.43.1282109686.squirrel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
On Tue, August 17, 2010 14:56, AzamatAbdoullaev said:
> DF wrote:
>> 'Extending this, classes/types, relations/predicates, and functions are
>> also "things" if they are in the universe of discourse.'    (01)

> Agree.    (02)

>> "Cyc's #$Thing includes all these as instances as well as individuals."    (03)

> Here sorry to disagree.    (04)

You may wish this wasn't so, but it is a feature of the Cyc language.    (05)

> Indeed, Thing is dubbed as "the universal collection" of which everything
> is
> a member. But the ontological distinction between universals and
> particulars, classes and members, collections and individuals, is
> confusing.    (06)

This can be confusing to those who first start to look at Cyc.    (07)

> Thing is divided into Individual ("the collection of all things that are
> not collections, abstract and concrete, include physical objects, events,
> numbers, relations, and groups") and Intangible Thing ("things that are
> not physical, including events...and ideas").    (08)

This is not a partition, as you state below.  There is a huge intersection
between Individual and IntangibleThing.  Abstract Individuals are also
IntangibleThings.    (09)

>  Individuals, concrete and abstract, and Intangible, not having physical
> substance, both are neither separate classes, nor disjoint things.
> Now what events are unclear: Individuals or Intangible things.    (010)

Event is defined as a subclass of IntangibleIndividual.
I'm not sure why this was unclear to you.    (011)

> The third level is made of relations, sets, and collections, or natural
> kinds and classes, with elements, supercollections and subcollections    (012)

Cyc uses #$Collection to denote "class".  #$Set denotes the concept of
mathematical set.  As a mathematical set can not change, while a class
may have different members at different times, #$Collection and #$Set
are disjoint.  Cyc does not define "natural kind", but the #$comments
inform the reader that natural kinds are intended to be represented by
#$Collections.    (013)

The ideas of element, supercollection, and subcollection are predicates,
not classes.    (014)

> The relationship is misleadingly treated as a formal entity,    (015)

Why does this mislead you?    (016)

The class #$Relation is partitioned into #$Function and #$Predicate.    (017)

> and it is
> improperly among "sets" and "collections", deprecated as a conceptual
> thing:
> "relationship is a mathematical object".    (018)

There is no depreciation here.  #$MathermaticalThing has set, collection,
and #$MathematicalObject as disjoint subclasses.  #$MathematicalObject
is the intersection of #$MathematicalThing and #$IntangibleIndividual
and has #$Relation as a subcollection.  Is your objection to the
name "Mathematical Object" being given to s #$Collection which hasRelation
as subclass?  Do you feel that a "conceptual thing" cannot be
mathematical?    (019)

> That alone kills all the big effort.    (020)

The inference engine seems to work well.  Is it the name of the upper
ontology class that kills Cyc for you?    (021)

-- doug    (022)

> ...    (023)

> Azamat Abdoullaev
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "doug foxvog" <doug@xxxxxxxxxx>
> To: "[ontolog-forum]" <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 2010 8:04 AM
> Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Triadic Sign Relations
>
>
>>
>> On Mon, August 16, 2010 14:36, AzamatAbdoullaev said:
>>> RC wrote:
>>>> ...
>>>> "Another interesting aspect of your answer is that you use the word
>>>> "thing" as the most general of all thingish words like object,
>>>> plurality,
>>>> stuff, material .; is that your mental image of the word "thing", as
>>>> the
>>>> most abstract of all objects?
>>
>>> ASHA: Yes, Thing refers to the Universal Class of all sorts of
>>> entities,
>>> implying the universal property of all entities, whereas Nothing refers
>>> to
>>> the Null Class .
>>
>> There are many definitions of "thing".  It is useful to have a common
>> term for the universal class and many ontologies have used the word
>> "thing".
>>
>>> RC: Can a "thing" include an action, method, plan, history of the
>>> foregoing?"
>>
>>> ASHA: In the broad sense, it is a substance, state, change, process as
>>> far
>>> as "every sign is also a thing, for what is not a thing is nothing at
>>> all".
>>
>> Extending this, classes/types, relations/predicates, and functions are
>> also "things" if they are in the universe of discourse.  Cyc's #$Thing
>> includes all these as instances as well as individuals.
>>
>>> In NL, words are the signs of ideas and images, thoughts and feelings,
>>> while the mental signs are the similitudes of things.
>>
>>> The beauty of machines consists in that they don't require the mental
>>> signs (ideas and images) as the medium whereby symbols (physical
>>> signals)
>>> could signify the real things.
>>
>> They do require symbols other than the symbols used by humans, similar
>> to
>> the significants in human minds.
>>
>> -- doug
>>
>>> Azamat Abdoullaev
>>>
>>>   ----- Original Message -----
>>>   From: Rich Cooper
>>>   To: '[ontolog-forum] '
>>>   Sent: Monday, August 16, 2010 12:20 AM
>>>   Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Triadic Sign Relations
>>>
>>>
>>>   Hi Azamat,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>   You wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>   "That confuses me no end if Peirceans can't tie the theory to some
>>> commonly understood reality for me.  Is there a more fruitful
>>> description that explains the language used and chosen for that
>>> representation?"
>>>
>>>   Rich,
>>>
>>>   The nature of signs and symbols and significations, their definition,
>>> elements, and types, was mainly established by Aristotle, Augustine,
>>> and
>>> Aquinas.
>>>
>>>   According to these classic sources, significance is a relationship
>>> between two sorts of things: signs and the kinds of things they signify
>>> (intend, express or mean), where one term necessarily causes something
>>> else to come to the mind. Distinguishing natural signs and conventional
>>> signs, the traditional theory of signs sets the following threefold
>>> partition of things:
>>>
>>>     1.. There are things that are just things, not any sign at all;
>>>     2.. There are things that are also signs of other things (as
>>> natural
>>> signs of the physical world and mental signs of the mind);
>>>     3.. There are things that are always signs, as languages (natural
>>> and
>>> artificial) and other cultural nonverbal symbols, as documents, money,
>>> ceremonies, and rites. see a brief but comprehensive account,
>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sign
>>>   Azamat Abdoullaev
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>   Thanks for your view on this; it helps me compare and contrast my own
>>> theoretical understanding with yours.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>   So a familiar sign S represents another sign S2 in one agent's mind,
>>> yet
>>> can represent only S itself in another agent's mind, while
>>> simultaneously representing S3 (money, a document .) to still another
>>> agent?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>   Another interesting aspect of your answer is that you use the word
>>> "thing" as the most general of all thingish words like object,
>>> plurality, stuff, material .; is that your mental image of the word
>>> "thing", as the most abstract of all objects?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>   Can a "thing" include an action, method, plan, history of the
>>> foregoing?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>   Thanks for the stimulating viewpoint,
>>>
>>>   -Rich
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>   Sincerely,
>>>
>>>   Rich Cooper
>>>
>>>   EnglishLogicKernel.com
>>>
>>>   Rich AT EnglishLogicKernel DOT com
>>>
>>>   9 4 9 \ 5 2 5 - 5 7 1 2
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 
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>>
>>
>> =============================================================
>> doug foxvog    doug@xxxxxxxxxx   http://ProgressiveAustin.org
>>
>> "I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great
>> initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours."
>>    - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
>> =============================================================
>>
>>
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>    (024)


=============================================================
doug foxvog    doug@xxxxxxxxxx   http://ProgressiveAustin.org    (025)

"I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great
initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours."
    - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
=============================================================    (026)


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