Rich,
Nice.
I expect we’ll all enjoy the (singular) spectacle that may now unfold.
Regards,
Christopher
From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Rich Cooper
Sent: 12 July 2015 04:49
To: '[ontolog-forum] '
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Ontology based conversational interfaces
John,
Thanks for the reference; it's very funny!
Since you are so persistent about insisting that every observer sees the same objective reality as the next one, I will concede the point to you. It seems to be the first step in a logical sequence you are developing, so go ahead and develop the next one, while I act like I agree and believe the same way, namely that all observers see the same world, or planet earth, or objective reality.
Sincerely,
Rich Cooper,
Rich Cooper,
Chief Technology Officer,
MetaSemantics Corporation
MetaSemantics AT EnglishLogicKernel DOT com
( 9 4 9 ) 5 2 5-5 7 1 2
http://www.EnglishLogicKernel.com
-----Original Message-----
From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John F Sowa
Sent: Saturday, July 11, 2015 7:34 PM
To: ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Ontology based conversational interfaces
On 7/11/2015 2:17 PM, Thomas Johnston wrote:
> To return to the point I began with: useful work in any non-trivial
> area of research very seldom comes from those who know little or
> nothing about what other serious researchers have already discovered
> and formulated.
I very strongly agree.
The only point I disagree with is the following:
> Aristotle and Plato are exceptions that prove that rule.
They were certainly not exceptions. They inherited a couple of centuries of intense analysis and research by the Greeks, who inherited many more centuries of research and writings from all the ancient civilizations.
There were extensive writings, but most of it is lost. The fragments that remain come from quotations by Plato, Aristotle, and others who had studied those documents.
Remember that the silk road brought merchants, soldiers, and gurus traveling between China and Europe and all points in between from about 1500 BC. There were also a couple of millennia of cultural exchanges and wars among the Sumerians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Hittites, and Persians (with the Hebrews, Phoenicians, Minoans, and others along the way).
It's not surprising that the great Pre-Socratics lived in the Greek colonies where they were exposed to outside influences.
Heraclitus lived in Asia Minor around 500 BC, which was under the control of the Persians, near the western end of the Silk Road.
Many people have remarked on similarities between Heraclitus's remarks on the Logos, the Tao (or Dao) by Lao Tzu in China, and Gautama Buddha in India -- who were approximate contemporaries.
Pythagoras also came from an island off Asia Minor. By tradition he is said to have traveled to Egypt and Babylon. More likely, he met gurus or wise men from those areas before settling in the Greek colonies in Italy.
Plato spent many years learning from the Sophists and from the debates between Socrates and the Sophists. But no one knows how much of Socrates survives in Plato's dialogs. Then Aristotle spent 18 years studying, debating, and teaching in Plato's Academy. Even before that, Aristotle had learned a huge amount of biology and medicine (and the need to keep precise
records) from his father -- and from his own experiments with his students in the Lyceum.
RC
> Thanks for the reference to the Winograd et al work Understanding
> Computers and Cognition. I managed to find this 60 page pdf review of
> it here:
>
> http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.32.3411&rep=r
> ep1&type=pdf
You might also check the one-page review of Understanding Dogs and Dognition: http://www.tmk.com/ftp/humor/dognition
John
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