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Re: [ontolog-forum] What's "Ontology Chemistry"?

To: "[ontolog-forum] " <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: "Obrst, Leo J." <lobrst@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 24 Nov 2011 17:46:59 +0000
Message-id: <FDFBC56B2482EE48850DB651ADF7FEB0181B4B18@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Well, there were the metaphysical poets, of course.     (01)

And I've always thought that Wallace Stevens is a kind of ontological poet:    (02)

The Emperor Of Ice-Cream     (03)

Call the roller of big cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last month's newspapers.
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.    (04)

Take from the dresser of deal.
Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet
On which she embroidered fantails once
And spread it so as to cover her face.
If her horny feet protrude, they come
To show how cold she is, and dumb.
Let the lamp affix its beam.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.    (05)

And of course:    (06)

Not Ideas About the Thing But the Thing Itself     (07)

At the earliest ending of winter,
In March, a scrawny cry from outside
Seemed like a sound in his mind.     (08)

He knew that he heard it,
A bird's cry, at daylight or before,
In the early March wind.     (09)

The sun was rising at six, 
No longer a battered panache above snow... 
It would have been outside.     (010)

It was not from the vast ventriloquism 
Of sleep's faded papier-mache... 
The sun was coming from the outside.     (011)

That scrawny cry--It was
A chorister whose c preceded the choir.
It was part of the colossal sun,     (012)

Surrounded by its choral rings,
Still far away. It was like
A new knowledge of reality    (013)

Also:
The Idea of Order at Key West
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/172206.    (014)

An Ordinary Evening in New Haven
http://payingattentiontothesky.com/the-idea-of-order-at-key-west-by-wallace-stevens/an-ordinary-evening-in-new-haven-wallace-stevens/    (015)


For these and others by Wallace Stevens, e.g.: 
http://www.poemhunter.com/wallace-stevens/poems/     (016)

This site is in fact a good location for poetry: 
http://www.poemhunter.com/poems/. With a lot of crap, of course.    (017)

Thanks,
Leo    (018)

-----Original Message-----
From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John F. Sowa
Sent: Wednesday, November 23, 2011 4:40 PM
To: ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] What's "Ontology Chemistry"?    (019)

On 11/22/2011 3:57 AM, Christopher Menzel wrote:
> I don't find them any more illuminating with regard to any concrete
> element of ontological engineering than I find poetry.    (020)

Don't knock poetry.    (021)

_De Rerum Natura_ by Lucretius had an enormous influence in preserving
and transmitting the ancient theories of atoms and thereby influencing
the pioneers in modern chemistry.    (022)

The physicists didn't accept atoms until much later than the chemists.
Boltzmann was an early adopter.  Unfortunately, he was driven to
suicide by the skeptical Ernst Mach and his cronies.    (023)

But Lucretius was presenting atoms as a scientific hypothesis.
His did use a metaphor in calling atoms "seeds of things", but
that was a simple term, not a fanciful embellishment.
See excerpts below.    (024)

John
______________________________________________________________________    (025)

http://classics.mit.edu/Carus/nature_things.mb.txt    (026)

This ultimate stock we have devised to name
Procreant atoms, matter, seeds of things,
Or primal bodies, as primal to the world...    (027)

Indeed, and were there not
For each its procreant atoms, could things have
Each its unalterable mother old? ...    (028)

Nothing Exists Per Se Except Atoms and the Void...    (029)

Atomic Motions    (030)

Now come: I will untangle for thy steps
Now by what motions the begetting bodies
Of the world-stuff beget the varied world,
And then forever resolve it when begot,
And by what force they are constrained to this,
And what the speed appointed unto them
Wherewith to travel down the vast inane...    (031)

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