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Re: [ontolog-forum] metaphysis, semantics and the research program of on

To: "[ontolog-forum]" <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: "doug foxvog" <doug@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2012 09:44:41 -0400
Message-id: <ad189d92b5a8f6723a9ccd86615e282e.squirrel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
On Wed, March 28, 2012 20:18, John F. Sowa wrote:    (01)

> In philosophy, metaphysics and ontology are often considered synonymous.    (02)

> Much of this discussion deals with issues that are on the borderline
> of logic and ontology.  Questions about contexts are among them.    (03)

However, it can be very useful to explicitly represent a context in which
a set of statements is declared to be true.  Outside of that context, such
statements can either be ignored or rules could be used to make
conclusions in other contexts.  Temporal contexts can be used in stating
who holds what office at what time, for example.  The context that
determines who is "the president" not only is temporal, but jurisdictional.    (04)

> Talk about whether or not something is "conceptual" is not helpful.    (05)

It can be very useful to state whether some object is "physical", in that it
has mass.  A "physical" event is one in which "physical" objects move or
physically change in some way.  The word "conceptual" is often used to
refer to things that do not fall into such categories.    (06)

In many cases the physical boundaries of a physical object are defined
by people: e.g., the border between my physical yard and my neighbors.
Depending upon context, there could be utility in describing some physical
objects as having "natural" boundaries (which could be further distinguished
by whether the object was itself "natural" or artefactual) or whether its
boundaries are mentally (conceptually) defined.    (07)

I note that a "social" definition is a type of "conceptual" definition.    (08)

> It is much more appropriate to cite examples from the literature
> about how various researchers and implementers have used logic
> and computational logics to represent those topics.    (09)

I would suggest that the choice of what is more appropriate could
be contextually related.  8)#    (010)

But, yes, i agree that it is useful to examine the literature to see
how contexts have been represented.    (011)

-- doug foxvog    (012)

> John    (013)





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