Re: [ontolog-forum] [ontology-summit] Estimating number of all known fac

["Matthew West" <dr.matthew.west@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Matthew L,

 

Here again are some examples of facts, I would be delighted if someone would attempt to bound factual knowledge so that they could be quantified--or otherwise provide succinct reasons about why my examples are not facts.

 

MW: Well lets pick up on what you are saying, you mention factual knowledge, so presumably you are only interested about the facts we know not the facts there are.

Fact examples:

1. The earth revolves around the sun.
2. The Greek letter Pi represents the irrational number that is the ratio between a circle's circumference and diameter.
3. A calorie is the amount of energy it takes to raise the  temperature of 1cc of water 1 deg. C at sea level.
4. Chemical X contains Y calories of available energy. (of course substituting where appropriate)

MW: What is not in this list is actually rather interesting. There is no fact like “Matthew West exists, Matthew Lange Exists”. Do you mean to exclude such facts? In fact all the facts you state could be called rules of one sort or another. Do you really mean the rules that govern the world we live in (including the ones we make up) and that we have written knowledge of rather than facts?

Are these not facts? Are they not countable?

 

MW: If you mean what I suggest, and exclude brute facts, then it must be countable, if only because it must have been written down to count.

 

MW: My next question would be whether each writing down of a rule counts as a fact, or whether a rule counts only once however many times (greater than one) it is written down.

 

Regards

 

Dr Matthew West                            

Information  Junction

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