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Re: [ontolog-forum] Truth

To: "[ontolog-forum] " <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Chris Mungall <cjmungall@xxxxxxx>
From: Pat Hayes <phayes@xxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 7 Jul 2012 22:29:13 -0500
Message-id: <E07C27CF-178E-422E-BCF9-799856B932CC@xxxxxxx>

On Jul 7, 2012, at 12:54 PM, Chris Mungall wrote:    (01)

> 
> On Jul 6, 2012, at 7:08 PM, Pat Hayes wrote:
> 
>> 
>> On Jul 6, 2012, at 4:25 PM, Chris Menzel wrote:
>> 
>>> On Fri, Jul 6, 2012 at 4:05 PM, Michael Brunnbauer <brunni@xxxxxxxxxxxx> 
>wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hello Matthew,
>>> 
>>> On Fri, Jul 06, 2012 at 09:35:02PM +0100, Matthew West wrote:
>>>> CM> ... classes are extensional in OWL.
>>>> Is that extensional in that the extension is the members declared in the 
>OWL ontology, or is that extensional in the sense that the members define the 
>class, but I might not know about all of them?
>>> 
>>> I think it's extensional in the sense that classes are not first class 
>entities
>>> but defined via the extension of the rdf:type property.
>>> 
>>> http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-mt/#sinterp
>>> 
>>> Actually, yes, there is an RDF-compatible semantics for OWL I'd forgotten 
>about where OWL classes are simply entities that are assigned sets of 
>individuals as their extensions. In this semantics, distinct classes can have 
>the same "members". But IIRC in both the W3C "direct" semantics for OWL and 
>the "model theoretic" semantics, OWL classes are simply sets of individuals.
>>> 
>>> Pat will probably jump in here and straighten me out...
>> 
>> (Back from being a builder of kitchens, Pat reads lots of emails...)
>> 
>> FIrst, there are several OWLs. OWL-Full is the most RDF-compatible, with 
>very few restrictions on what can be said in it, but has no complete reasoners 
>so isn't very widely used. OWL-DL has many restrictions. OWL-Full follows RDF 
>and RDFS in treating classes as first-class (sorry about the pun) entities and 
>intensional, not extensional (in the sense that classes are not identified 
>with sets, so it is consistent for two classes to have exactly the same 
>members but still be distinct classes.) OWL-DL is quite different: it does not 
>allow classes to be first-class entities, and it assumes that classes are 
>defined extensionally, i.e. are sets, ie defined by their membership. So, to 
>sum up:
>> extensional = classes are identified with the sets of their members.
>> intensional = not extensional, so having the same members does not guarantee 
>identity of classes. (Put another way, classes have 'robust identity' which is 
>independent of their membership.)
>> 
>> OWL-Full: classes are individuals, just as in RDF and RDFS and Common Logic. 
>Classes are intensional.
>> OWL-DL: classes are not individuals, and  properties (binary relations) only 
>relate individuals, not classes. In the language of the ISO Common Logic 
>specs, OWL-DL is a segregated dialect. Classes are extensional. 
> 
> To be pedantic - in OWL-DL there are object properties (individual to 
>individual), data properties (individuals to literals) and annotation 
>properties (these are invisible in the direct semantics, but in practical 
>terms these can link classes, provided you don't need inferences from them)    (02)

Yes. I was deliberately ignoring the annotation properties, which have ne 
semantics so aren't really in the logic at all, and also ignoring the 
individual/literal distinction, which is semantically meaningless and vanishes 
when you put this back into a normal logical framework. (Literals are just 
terms consisting of a function applied to a character string.)    (03)

Pat    (04)


> 
> Regarding classes being the same as their extents in OWL: I don't think this 
>view is universally shared. In fact, one of the authors of the OWL2 direct 
>semantics specification states otherwise here:
> http://ontogenesis.knowledgeblog.org/1004
> 
>> The OWL specs give a 'direct' semantics for OWL-DL (which was the only OWL 
>that many of the WG cared about, those people also being not particularly 
>interested in RDF) whlie allowing OWL-Full to simply be an RDF extension. This 
>makes for confusing reading, and is the primary reason the specs are so hard 
>to follow..
> 
> Indeed!
> 
>> (There is also the newer standard OWL2-DL, which relaxes the syntax to 
>apparently allow classes to contain other classes, just as in OWL-Full, but in 
>fact it does this by a mechanism called 'punning' which keeps the underlying 
>segregation in the semantics. And it also assumes extensionality.)
>> 
>> Hope this helps.
>> 
>> Pat
>> 
>> 
>>> 
>>> -chris
>>> 
>>> 
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>     (05)

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phayesAT-SIGNihmc.us       http://www.ihmc.us/users/phayes    (06)






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