Hi John, (01)
if you happen to have time, you could check out the phd. Now less than
100 pages! I would really appreciate your comments. (02)
Avril (03)
Quoting John F Sowa <sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx>: (04)
> In various notes to Ontolog Forum, I emphasized the importance of laws
> (both physical and social) as a foundation for ontology. I won't go
> into all the details, but I'd like to make a few comments:
>
> 1. Laws of physics provide a more fundamental explanation of many
> properties than the notions of "disposition" or "tendency".
> Physicists, for example, would explain why glass is fragile
> along the following lines:
>
> "Look at the structure of the material and how the atoms and
> molecules are linked to one another. Given that structure
> and the laws of quantum mechanics, you can predict that under
> certain conditions, something made of steel will bend, and
> something of the same shape but made of glass will break."
>
> 2. Many people have found the term 'disposition' to be useful in
> defining terms in an ontology. I have no objection to using
> those terms to simplify an explanation. But I would *not*
> treat dispositions as fundamental. The word 'disposition' is
> just a shorthand way of saying that there exists a law that
> makes a certain kind of prediction.
>
> 3. For the social sciences, the interactions are far more complex
> than in physics. But there are regularities that can be used to
> make predictions that have a high probability of being correct.
> For example:
>
> a) If you go to a store and pay the asking price for an item,
> the sales clerk will take the money and give you the item.
>
> b) If you drive on a highway and stay on the designated side
> of the road, other drivers will stay on their side and
> avoid hitting you or your car.
>
> c) If you work for a company and repeatedly fail to do what
> your manager asks you to do, you will be fired.
>
> For reasoning about social interactions, the laws aren't as strict
> as the laws of physics, but game theory has proved to be useful.
> Following is a survey article from the _Scientific American_:
>
> http://www.ped.fas.harvard.edu/people/faculty/publications_nowak/SciAm02.pdf
> The economics of fair play
>
> Following is an influential book on the subject:
>
> Axelrod, Robert (1984) _The Evolution of Cooperation_,
> New York: Basic Books. Revised edition, Perseus Books, 2006.
>
> It's significant that Richard Dawkins, who wrote the book
> _The Selfish Gene_, wrote a highly favorable forward to the
> revised edition of Axelrod's book.
>
> I'm happy to see that Dawkins endorses Axelrod's book, but
> I remain skeptical about the memes that Dawkins proposes.
>
> For more info about related issues, see Axelrod's home page:
>
> http://www-personal.umich.edu/~axe/
>
> I followed some of those links to a review of Daniel Dennet's
> book, _Darwin's Dangerous Idea_ by H. Allen Orr:
>
> http://bostonreview.net/BR21.3/Orr.html
>
> From the concluding section of the review:
>
> HAO
>> Although he has produced a provocative and intermittently
>> entertaining book, Dennett's chief claim is unconvincing.
>> Darwinism may have little to tell us outside of biology.
>
> I strongly agree with that last line. I also agree with
> Orr's criticisms of Dennet's version of memes.
>
> In summary, I believe that laws of nature and social behavior
> are a better foundation for ontology than dispositions. I
> would also recommend game theory as a useful methodology
> for reasoning about social behavior.
>
> John
>
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Ystävällisin terveisin, (06)
Avril Styrman
avril.styrman@xxxxxxxxxxx
puh. +358 40 7000 589 (07)
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