Very well said, Matthew, as this is very true, and most relevant to this
thread: (01)
> A key thing to bear in mind is that you should not confuse
> entity-relationship relationships (lines on a data model) with real
> world relationships (situations that exist) just because they have the
> same name. (02)
(But may everybody please forgive me as I now expand on and generalize
from your so neatly-put point.) (03)
One aspect of your distinction is that the abstract structure is - or
should be - evolvable, under our own control, whereas the real
situations addressed are givens, hard though it may be for us to
perceive and concede such sometimes unforgiving realities, and harder to
find the appropriate general approach to them. (Separating ontologies
from realities is after all what 'deconstruction' is supposed to be
about.) (04)
Then, moving on but building on the evolution phenomenon, we may observe
that different abstract structures ostensibly addressing the same
general need (here N-RELATIONS) may be equally robust, but each in its
own ecology. Everybody knows all that, in a way, though the
evolutionary perspective may seem a redundant or even undesirable
sophistication (in the pejorative sense of that last word) when we have
our technologist's nose to the everyday grindstone. (05)
On the other hand, it is our ontologist's most valid instinct (and in
general the scientific imperative...) to seek to discover or work to
create a better common representation. (06)
So there is a permanent tension and dialectic between the two practical
requirements of fixity/reusability and flexibility/evolvability. (07)
But it is a critical and ubiquitous interplay, and our modelling
approaches should try to remind us of it and help us find appropriate
ways forward. (08)
That in its turn is a "meta-" play so perennial and ubiquitous that it
deserves and even suggests its own ontology. (09)
And that, of course (else why this long-winded buildup?), is one of the
prime features of the Ontology Chemistry (or "OntChem") scene that
you'll soon be seeing more of on the Ontolog wiki. I shall shortly be
quoting there and building on a most useful statement on the Ontolog
Forum by Pat Hayes that describes the ontologizing process in a way very
compatible with the above. I'll post a note here when the new wiki
material is up. (010)
Then, coincidentally, you'll also begin to see how it rather centrally
happens to address and support the OMG's entire SIMF quest, directed as
that quest is at the fallout of the above tensions. (011)
Christopher (012)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Matthew West" <dr.matthew.west@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "'[ontolog-forum] '" <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>;
<edbark@xxxxxxxx>
Cc: "'Paul Brown'" <pbrown@xxxxxxxxx>; "'Bauman, Bruce T'"
<btbauma@xxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, November 05, 2011 9:56 AM
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] N-RELATIONs: Formal Ontology,Semantic Web
and Smart Applications (013)
Dear Colleagues, (014)
A key thing to bear in mind is that you should not confuse
entity-relationship relationships (lines on a data model) with real
world relationships (situations that exist) just because they have the
same name. (015)
Regards (016)
Matthew West
Information Junction
Tel: +44 1489 880185
Mobile: +44 750 3385279
Skype: dr.matthew.west
matthew.west@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.informationjunction.co.uk/
http://www.matthew-west.org.uk/ (017)
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