A concept such as kind of activity, kind of organism, etc. denotes the
collection (all) subtypes of activity, organism, etc.
However, the concepts activity, organism, etc. imply already all their subtypes.
Therefore, including the collection of (all) subtypes in an ontology as a
separate concept would be redundant. (01)
Grouping of subtypes in other collections (subsets) needs a criterion for
membership of the collection. Such a criterion would only
be valid if the criterion is not a criterion for subtyping, otherwise it would
also be redundant.
The level in the hierarchy, as is used in the organisms example, is such a
possibly valid criterion. However, different branches in
a hierarchy appear to have very different numbers of levels. And as far as I
know, forcing a number of levels is arbitrary. (02)
Andries (03)
> -----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
> Van: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>[mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] Namens
> doug foxvog
> Verzonden: maandag 7 januari 2013 6:47
> Aan: [ontolog-forum]
> Onderwerp: Re: [ontolog-forum] Simplifying the language and tools for
>teaching and using ontology
>
> On Fri, January 4, 2013 11:57, sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> > ... I'd just like to emphasize the distinction between language and
> > metalanguage.
> > I believe that the failure to
> > clarify that distinction and observe it consistently is the source of
> > the disagreements.
> > ...
> > If Activity, Stone, and Hope, are categories (or classes or
> > types) in your ontology, then you only need two metalevel terms:
> > 'instance of' and 'subtype of' (or 'subclass of').
>
> > Those terms let you talk about and distinguish instances of Activity,
> > Stone, and Hope from subtypes of Activity, Stone, or Hope. The
> > ontology itself should *not* have any categories with names like
> > 'kind_of_activity' or 'class_of_activity'.
>
> John, i understand 'kind_of_activity' to be restrictive, allowing rules.
> Defining metaclasses allows for this. I can understand you desiring better
>names, if that is what
> your issue is.
>
> Let me give an example using organisms, instead of activities. However,
>instead of using names such
> as 'kind_of_organism' and 'kind_of_kind_of_organism', i will use Species,
>Genus, Phylum,
> Biological_Kingdom, etc. at the first level (all subtypes of
> Biological_Taxon) and Biological_Taxon_Level at the second, with the
>preceding list being instances of
> Biological_Taxon_Level.
>
> Rules could be stated using such terms:
> speciesOf(?organism, ?S) AND subtaxon(?S, ?G) AND Genus(?G) =>
> genusOf(?organism, ?G)
>
> TaxonLevel(?TL1) and notEqual(?TL1, BiologicalDomain) =>
> thereExists (TL2):
> TaxonLevel(?TL2) and nextHigherMajorTaxonLevel(?TL1, ?TL2) [i'm using
>shorter names because of
> line length limitations.]
>
> Note that relations take instances of the meta-level terms as arguments and
>the second rule checks for
> instances of the "kind_of_kind_of_..."
> level term.
>
> I agree that "kind_of_kind_of_organism" is not a good name, and that a name
>such as
> "biological_taxon_level" is preferable. However, here you need two
>meta-levels.
>
> If your argument is over naming, i agree that a better name can normally be
>found than "kind_of_X".
> If, however, you are objecting to including meta-types in an ontology, i
>would respectfully suggest
> that they may be quite useful.
>
> -- doug
> ...
> > John
>
>
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