Dear Chris and John, (01)
> On Jul 12, 2011, at 2:46 AM, John F. Sowa wrote:
> > ...
> > But one of the most dangerous philosophical diseases is to adopt
> > an approach that works well for one kind of problem and try
> > to apply it to everything -- the "only tool" syndrome.
> >
> > For example, purely extensional representations are useful for
> > talking about physical objects and processes, but they cannot
> > deal with anything that involves intentionality. They cannot
> > answer any question that begins with the word 'why'. They
> > can't represent a goal, a promise, or a contract.
>
> Not that I'm a big fan of such approaches, but by quantifying over
possible
> worlds a great deal involving intentionality can be dealt with
extensionally -
> cf., notably, the work of David Lewis. (02)
MW: And I have successfully used just this approach in my book "Developing
High Quality Data Models" to represent just such things as goals, promises
and contracts extensionally. So not only is it possible. It's been done. (03)
Regards (04)
Matthew West
Information Junction
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> Of course, there is great controversy
> surrounding the adequacy of such approaches, but it is at the least
misleading
> simply to assert that extensional representations "cannot deal with
anything
> that involves intentionality" as if this were established fact.
>
> -chris
>
>
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