Dear Chris,
I am discussing ontology development from
the point of view of various users, not only from the point of view of
professors or logicians. Though logic has its place in ontology, it is not
sufficient to designate the objects that ontologies are about. Numerous
examples have been given by Hans, Amanda, Mike, and myself.
May I suggest that you consider for a
while exactly what those variable and constant names in a logical _expression_
refer to? What do you do when people (e.g. on this list) disagree about what
is referenced? If ontology can’t point to meaningful objects and
relationships, then it is about nothing.
-Rich
Sincerely,
Rich Cooper
EnglishLogicKernel.com
Rich AT EnglishLogicKernel DOT com
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From:
ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Christopher Menzel
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2012
11:21 AM
To: [ontolog-forum]
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] metaphysis,semantics and the
research program of ontologies
On Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 7:32 PM, Rich Cooper
<rich@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Dear Chris,
Reality is far, far more than logic.
Indeed. Why you think this is in any way germane to my post is a
mystery to me.
The purpose
of any representation of reality is so that we can
manipulate reality in ways that assist us, and so
that we can know which realities cannot be
manipulated.
In addition to logic, there is usefulness,
appreciation (beauty, attractiveness, elegance,
love, lust, ..), value (preference of one thing
over another given a choice), and all the
humanities.
Limiting ourselves to just logic is a poor strategy, IMHO.
This is so far off the point I hardly know where to begin. Ontology
engineering is about the representation of information. But there is no
limitation on the type of
information — it can be anything from payrolls to art to ethics. And,
obviously, extra-logical methods and tools will be involved in the analysis and
collection of that information. But the medium of
representation in ontology engineering is formal logic and constructing
ontologies in formal logic is the name of the game. It makes about as much
sense to talk about "limiting" ontologists to "just logic"
as it does to talk about "limiting" a conductor to "just an
orchestra". If you are not talking about issues and problems related
ultimately to the representation of information — any information — in logic,
you are not talking about ontology engineering.
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