Re: [ontolog-forum] Person, Organization, and Citizens United vs. The F

["David C. Hay" <dch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

You could use "Agent" as the parent, but it has
the connotation of role.  That is, a Party is an Agent in a sale or
an account.  There's too much baggage in the English word.

Dave

At 04:27 PM 10/3/2012, you wrote:

Content-Language: en-US
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
         boundary="_000_FDFBC56B2482EE48850DB651ADF7FEB01E7F9355IMCMBX04MITREOR_"

Agent is the typical parent class of both Person and Organization. There could be refinement, e.g., Legal Person, etc. But the organizing and distinguishing characteristic is something like Agent, a volitional entity.
 
Thanks,
Leo
 
From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [ mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David C. Hay
Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2012 4:55 PM
To: [ontolog-forum]
Subject: [ontolog-forum] Person, Organization, and Citizens United vs. The Federal Election Commission
 
Whoa!

You've touched on an area that really burns me up.  For years now, my models have shown Party which is an abstract super-type that designates either a Person or an Organization.  A Person is defined as an individual human being, and an Organization is defined as a group of human beings, brought together physically or virtually for some purpose.

In my world (the US Supreme Court notwithstanding) an Organization is not a Person!  The Supreme Court decision (Citizens United vs. The Federal Election Commission, 2010) confusing these two very different concepts has had profound political impact in the United States, and may prove to be the end of the American democracy.

Yes, the distinction is important.

If you want to talk about something that could be either a Person or an Organization, the concept Party works just fine.

Dave Hay


At 02:21 PM 10/3/2012, you wrote:

On 10/3/2012 8:06 AM, Andries van Renssen wrote:
> for me 'person' is not a role. But customer, student, patient, performer,
> enabler, etc. are roles, because they are extrinsic aspects which
> existence depend on a relation with some other role player.

The word 'person' is derived from the Roman 'persona', which was applied
to the masks worn by actors in Greco-Roman tragedies and comedies.

The etymology shows its origin: 'persona' comes from 'per sonare'
(to sound through) -- the lips were usually exaggerated in a kind
of megaphone that helped the actors project their voices in the
outdoor amphitheaters.

The two-word phrase 'human being' is the most neutral English term
for an individual of the species Homo sapiens.  Other English words,
'man', 'woman', 'boy', 'girl', 'child', and 'adult' designate
a human being of a particular sex and/or age.

Since the US legal system has adopted the word 'person' for a role
that can be played by an organization, the role aspect has been
emphasized, rather than diminished by time.

To be absolutely neutral, an ontology could use the term HumanBeing
for an instance of Homo sap.  Then the category Person could be
used for individuals or organizations that have a certain legal
status in society.

The distinction is important.  The character string used in the KRep
is less significant.  One solution is to use the URI or IRI as the
official designator, and to have a list of possible realizations
in different languages in the document that describes the term.

John Sowa
 
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